Friday night, Moses Mabhida Stadium. Ethan Chislett’s penalty thumps the crossbar, Red Arrows are through, and the gold in the stands goes very, very quiet. Then the phones come out. Pretoria: the champions of Africa are out as well. Soweto: four goals, group stage booked. By the time the trains and taxis were moving, the picture for South African clubs in Africa had been redrawn in a single evening. Two of the big three gone. The one left standing in the Champions League wears black and white. For a Chiefs supporter, a week before the derby, that is a lot to swallow in one night.
A word on where this seat is. The Fan Seat takes sides, and today it sits in the gold and black of Kaizer Chiefs. Pirates and Sundowns supporters are welcome to pull up a chair, and the facts below are checked like any other ScoreLine page. The full stories live in our reports from Durban, Loftus and Orlando Stadium.
One goal in two legs, and far too much crossbar
Here is the thing about Friday. For about twenty minutes it was wonderful. Bradley Cross rose on 66 minutes, the header went in, and the tie was level at 1-1 after the defeat in Ndola. You could feel the whole stadium leaning forward, waiting for the second. It never came.
Then penalties, which every Chiefs fan approaches the way you approach a dentist’s waiting room. Lebohang Maboe struck the bar with the first kick. Bruce Bvuma gave us a flicker by saving from John Pweto. Then Charles Kalumba saved from Reeve Frosler, and Chislett hit the bar again. Red Arrows won the shoot-out 3-2, and the Zambians are in the group stage.
What stings is not only the exit. It is the shape of it. Chiefs reached the group stage of this competition last season, and The Citizen called this a step back. Fernando Da Cruz only took charge at the start of this campaign, so nobody sensible is writing his obituary after two legs. But one goal across 180 minutes of a two-legged tie is a number that does not lie, and every supporter walking out of Moses Mabhida knew it. We had chances. We hit woodwork. We did not score enough. That is the story of the night, and if we are honest, it has been the story for a while.
Pirates and the weight of South African clubs in Africa
Now the bit that hurts a little more. The one South African club left in the Champions League is the one we least want to talk about this week.
Orlando Pirates did not just scrape through. They beat African Stars 4-0 at Orlando Stadium, 5-0 on aggregate after a 1-0 win in the first leg, CAF confirmed. Evidence Makgopa scored twice. Mpho Padime scored seconds after coming on. It was the kind of night that makes you check whether the opposition turned up.
And it matters to them more than the scoreline suggests. Last season Pirates fell at exactly this stage, beaten on penalties by FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo after a 3-0 defeat away and a 3-0 win at home, FARPost recalled. Friday buried that. Pirates were the first South African club to win the African Cup of Champions Clubs, in 1995 against ASEC Mimosas, as the club never tires of reminding us. They carry that history into the group stage now.
Sundowns, meanwhile, were the ones who were supposed to be carrying it. The holders had reached the group stage every year since 2016, the year they won it, TimesLIVE reported, and the last time they fell short at this point was 2015. FARPost counted 18 Sundowns shots to Wiliete’s six on Friday, and still one soft pass back and one away goal were enough, as our Turning Point on the Mailula pass back explains. No Chiefs fan will be sending flowers to Pretoria. But even we can admit it was a jolt to see Africa’s champions out before November.
The honest take: back them in Africa, beat them on Saturday
So here is where this seat lands. Chiefs supporters should want Pirates to go deep in the Champions League. Properly deep.
Not for their sake. For ours, and for the league’s. When a Premiership club walks into Cairo or Casablanca and wins, it says something about the football we watch every weekend, including the football Chiefs play. When our clubs go out early, the whole league looks smaller. One night removed two of our three biggest names from the continent. South African clubs in Africa need a flag-bearer, and like it or not, the flag is in Soweto, in the wrong colours.
There is a footnote, and it is a happy one. “Alone” is not quite the word yet. Durban City took a 3-1 lead from the first leg at Moses Mabhida into Sunday’s Confederation Cup return leg in Mauritius, so the country may yet have two clubs in the group stages. Good luck to them.
And the honest take on our own side? Da Cruz said after the shoot-out that Chiefs controlled the game, created the chances and should have won by three or four goals, and on the chances he has a point. But supporters do not get to keep chances. The answer is goals, and the next two chances to find some are close: TS Galaxy in the knockout cup on Tuesday, then the small matter of Saturday.
Because that is the deal, and every Chiefs fan knows its terms. In Africa, through the group stage, we will grumble, we will check the scores, and somewhere deep down we will quietly hope the Buccaneers win. On Saturday 31 October at FNB Stadium, that deal is off. Completely. Let them carry the country on the continent. For ninety minutes on Saturday, they are just Pirates again, and we owe them one.