Beaver Nazo: Coach, let’s first talk transfer business. One of the latest arrivals at Baroka FC is Prince Nxumalo. Has he been brought in to solve your struggles up front, seeing you’ve only scored seven goals in 11 league matches?
Wedson Nyirenda: Yes. I mean, when you have the problem that we’re having, you try and get players that you think can solve it. I know Prince well and I know that he is a proven goalscorer, but I haven’t seen much of him in recent years. However, like I said, we are working on his fitness. Maybe having him here will help us get some goals.
BN: He found the back of the net in his second game for the club...
WN: The boy has got many qualities of a good striker. He looks in good shape and I am happy with what I have seen. His decision-making has been fantastic. All he needs is support from his teammates and we also need to get one or two more strikers because we cannot afford a situation where we are depending on him. He will get to a point where he feels, ‘Okay, I will play every week,’ and we don’t want to see that happening. He needs some competition. But Prince is a good striker and his teammates need to support him.
BN: Speaking of your struggles up front…
WN: (Cuts in) If you look at last season, we had the same problem where we would create eight to 10 scoring chances, not just chances but mainly clear-cut chances, and we wouldn’t capitalise on them. We need to be putting the ball in the back of the net for us to win games. At the end of the day, you make one mistake at the back and you get punished by opponents and you think of all the chances you missed.
BN: Well, you once alluded to the fact that most strikers in the league lack basics.
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Esta historia es de la edición 20 November 2019 de Soccer Laduma.
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We have a problem
For this reason, Clinton Larsen was shown the door as head coach, but still, under new mentor Norman Mapeza, the struggle persists, although they did win two games on the trot recently.
They have the character
Cut Lehlohonolo Seema’s skin andhe’ll probably bleed green andwhite – such has been the man’s loyalty to Bloemfontein Celtic. Born and bred in neighbouring Lesotho, the Mangaung outfit is a club that’s always had a pull factor on him. So much that it is they who pulled him from obscure Bantu United from the mountainous kingdom in 1998, and he would go on to represent the club until 2006 when the allure of Orlando Pirates, understandably, proved too great a pull factor. Yet even a five-year spell with the Soweto giants, which included a season-long loan stint at Mpumalanga Black Aces, would not prevent him being pulled back in the direction of Siwelele, albeit to begin a coaching journey in the junior ranks. The next step was to become an assistant, a job he performed with aplomb, before being called on to take the hotseat together with John Maduka after the departure of Steve Komphela at the tail end of 2018. Much against general expectation, the duo has done fairly well, if Celtic’s off-field troubles of the recent past are to be taken into consideration. Soccer Laduma’s Beaver Nazo sat down with Seema to discuss this, that, and the other.
They are on another level
Before signing for Mamelodi Sundowns last season,Lyle Lakay knew that he would be used as a leftback and not in his preferred left wing position, something that he surprisingly did not have a problem with. In his first season with the club last term, he played a key role as they went onto win an unprecedented ninth Absa Premiership league title. This season has been a bit of a slow one for Lakay, who has been used mostly as a substitute, but there’s still a lot of football to be played both locally and on the continent, so he has time to fight for his place in the starting line-up. In this interview, the former Cape Town City and Bloemfontein Celtic player chats to Soccer Laduma’s Tshepang Mailwane about his time at the Tshwane giants so far, their chances of winning the CAF Champions League and why he believes they can close the gap on current Kaizer Chiefs, who have been in fine form since the start of the campaign.
Siyag bhoza
Middendorp holding a divided Chiefs camp together
Lionel Messi 2019 Ballon d'Or winner
Messi claims record Ballon d’Or, Ronaldo snubs gala
Jose Is Back, Will He Last?
Jose Mourinho has re-turned with a bang! Not many would have thought Tottenham Hotspur would sack Mauricio Pochettino after the Argentine led them to the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League final, and even fewer would have thought chairman Daniel Levy would replace him with Jose Mourinho.
It Was Challenging
Imagine the scene…you are playing a game of your life, fighting to qualify for the Olympic Games through the lifeline of the third and fourth place play-off.
No Disrespect To Chiefs, But…
On how he masterminded victory over Chiefs
He Is Not Personal
He may not be gettingregular game-timedomestically with Bidvest Wits, but attacking midfielder Gift Motupa is making a name for himself in this season’s CAF Confederation Cup. The 25-year-old player has bagged six goals in the campaign so far, inspiring the Clever Boys to the group stages of a CAF club competition for the first time in their history. It has not been the same in the domestic league though, with just one start so far and one goal. Having done so well in the Confederation Cup, he will no doubt be hoping that coach Gavin Hunt will give him more opportunities to play in the Absa Premiership as the Braamfontein-based outfit looks to challenge for the title. In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Tshepang Mailwane, Motupa expresses his excitement about qualifying for
That's Me Wherever I Go
As a coach, former Kaizer Chiefs striker Wedson Nyirenda prides himself on being blessed with the mentality of a winner. So much that when talking about his past achievements in the realm of coaching, you can almost never miss the sparkle in his eye, and often this trip down memory lane will be accompanied by a smile that tells a story of contentment and achievement. He has built up a reputation, across all three countries he has worked in, of turning socalled ordinary teams into respected outfits. He did it with Baroka FC, helping them to annex the 2018 Telkom Knockout trophy much against many people’s expectations. However, the going has since gotten tougher, and the Limpopo side is (still) struggling to score goals this season. What is going on? Is Nyirenda going to jump ship and go back to his previous role as Zambia national team coach, as the rumour mill seems to suggest? Nyirenda provides the answers in this chat with Soccer Laduma’s Beaver Nazo.
