Most of the coaches left in the Telkom Knockout are in pursuit of an identical mission – to claim maiden career crowns in South Africa via the TKO.
They are all three games away from fulfilling that dream. Only Pitso 'Jingles' Mosimane of Mamelodi Sundowns and Gavin Hunt of Bidvest Wits have managed to lay their hands on a Telkom Knockout triumph out of the eight coaches that are still fighting to lift this year’s edition of the TKO.
The coaches that are left are Mosimane, Hunt, Cavin Johnson, Fadlu Davids, Milutin 'Micho' Sredojevic, Wedson Nyirenda, Kaitano Tembo and Giovanni Solinas.
Nyirenda is in his debut season in South Africa with Baroka FC. He swept past Lamontville Golden Arrows to reach the quarter-finals of the TKO where his team will face Sundowns’ Mosimane today at 3.30pm at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Limpopo. Unfortunately he himself won’t be on the bench as he is home in Zambia where he is burying his mother.
Mosimane was the winner in 2015 as Sundowns thumped Kaizer Chiefs 3-1 to be crowned the champions at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. The former Bafana Bafana coach has lifted multiple other domestic titles during his tenure with SuperSport United and Sundowns.
From Polokwane, the action will move to Moses Mabhida Stadium. AmaZulu will host Orlando Pirates at 6pm in what promises to be a mouthwatering clash of football.
Micho is in his second season at the helm of Pirates. Last season he failed to deliver the goods for the Buccaneers in terms of silverware. The club hasn't won a trophy in four years but are heading to Durban full of confidence, being unbeaten in their last eight matches. So is Micho on course to lift his first piece of silverware with the Bucs, and his first in South Africa? We'll have to wait and see.
Cavin Johnson, the coach at Usuthu, won’t allow that to happen too easily as he too is searching for his maiden career crown as head coach.
Today’s action ends in Pietermaritzburg where Maritzburg will face the defending champions, Bidvest Wits, at the Harry Gwala Stadium at 8.15pm.
Fadlu Davids came close to clinching his first piece of silverware in his debut season as head coach of Maritzburg last year, only for the club to lose to Free State Stars in the final of the Nedbank Cup at Cape Town Stadium.
Davids is up against serial winner Gavin Hunt who is gunning for back-to- back titles.
Tomorrow’s clash will see Kaizer Chiefs taking on SuperSport at Moses Mabhida Stadium at 3.30pm. The embattled Solinas is hunting for his first piece of silverware in South Africa, after joining Amakhosi at the beginning of the season. His counterpart, Kaitano Tembo, is in the same boat. He was appointed head coach of Matsatsantsa A Pitori at the start of the season, and succumbed to a penalty defeat against Cape Town City in the recent MTN8 final at Moses Mabhida.
On his way to the final, he got the better of Solinas. So it remains to be seen whether who among the six coaches hunting for that first piece of silverware in South Africa will be able to achieve their goal. Or will Mosimane or Hunt add another crown to to their glittering CV’s?