25 February 2020, by: Thathe Msimango

Gavin Lane on the Soweto Derby

Soweto is a township with an astonishing history. While walking through it, you find yourself in the popular Vilakazi Street, named after Dr BW Vilakazi, who was a poet, novelist and intellectual and wrote in numerous indigenous languages and was the first black lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits).

Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu lived in that street – how many places can claim that two Nobel Prize winners lived in the same street? Also, the Hector Peterson Memorial, named after a young Soweto boy, was shot on June 16, 1976, during the Soweto Uprising. Besides all sorts of tourist attractions around the township, nothing draws millions of people from across multiple nations more than the Soweto Derby.The iconic football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates is a rivalry that stretches back to 1970. Come Saturday, 29 February 2019, the two sides meet for a record 169th match. Chiefs hold a superior head-to-head record having won 68 times with Pirates claiming 41 victories, there have been while 53 draws as well.

This will be one of the most anticipated derbies because the two clubs are separated by six points on the Absa Premiership league table with Chiefs still occupying the top spot. Pirates, in have snuck up on their rivals with some eye-catching form under new coach Josef Zinnbauer.

The former Orlando Pirates defender Gavin Lane, who spent nearly a decade with the club believes his former sides good form since the arrival of coach Josef Zinnbauer, which saw the club winning seven of eight matches might come in handy with the Buccaneers looking for three points and bragging rights.

“You know what they say; once a Pirate, always a Pirate, so there’s no way I could ever say my club will lose even if I have stopped playing,” explained Lane.

“I saw Chiefs last game (against Highlands Park), they lost on penalties so it doesn’t matter to us. I think at the moment. Orlando Pirates, under the new coach, have started improving, they’re playing really good soccer and Kaizer Chiefs looks like they’ve hit a little bit of a wobble. I think they’ve they haven’t won in the last two games or something like that. But the match shall be entertaining as both teams are chasing the league title.”Besides the dark cloud cover hanging over both Soweto giants, as both are yet to claim the league title in five years. The 53-year-old Lane thinks that doesn’t take away from the magnitude of this clash. He says it is every South African footballer’s dream to participate in this iconic derby.

“It’s just big pressure for every single player no matter how experienced you are, or how many derbies you’ve played in that week leading up because of extra training sessions. You’ve got everyone asking questions plus journalists, which players are going to play and, and all these types of things. So, you know, it’s one of the greatest moments of your life when you walk tunnel straight out in the stadium, and you just hear that fans go wild. I mean expect 50 000 or 80,000 spectators. It’s amazing, even you get like goosebumps and you can’t even talk to each other because that’s how loud it is.”

“Once the game gets going it’s a little bit different, but that first initial walking out onto the field you can only talk to your own teammate because of the whistling and so it’s a really it’s a real it’s a great game to be part of. Sadly, there’s always going to be a winner and a loser and I’m definitely back in Pirates to win this one,” concludes Lane, who now owns a renovation company.

The league title chase is wide open as Amakhosi lead on the top the summit by four-point and former Moroka Swallows tough defender is hoping new champions can be crowned come May as Mamelodi Sundowns have dominated for the past five years. And hopes the likes of Bidvest Wits and Supersport United can challenge for the league honours.

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