Pirates coach Zinnbauer on verge of new record in 100th Soweto Derby

There is plenty at stake on Sunday as the biggest rivalry in South African football celebrates its centenary. Pirates boss Josef Zinnbauer could become the first coach to win four consecutive Soweto derbies while Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt will look to break his losing streak against the Buccaneers.

There’s been a major spotlight on Zinnbauer this week, after notching up 50 caps as coach of the Buccaneers. Pirates are also on an eleven match unbeaten run across all competitions, highlighting the success of the club under their German boss.

Speaking ahead of the 100th Soweto Derby, the Buccaneers coach played down talk of setting a new record for back-to-back derby wins, focusing instead on seeing his team continue to produce good performances and results.

“First of all we need to win the game, that’s more important for me than the four in a row. I’ll be happy with four when we win but we have a lot of work and I don’t speak about winning four in a row,” Zinnbauer said.

“It’s not important for me, the 100th derby. It is for journalists and supporters and the club, but for me as a coach you can only get three points from this game. I know it's a hard game for us, against a top opponent, top club and we have to focus on that. Yes I’ve seen the statistics, I am happy about that but it's not my work alone.”

While Kaizer Chiefs have had a poor run of results in their recent derbies against the Buccaneers and are languishing in eleventh place on the DSTV Premiership table, Zinnbauer highlighted their strong performances in the CAF Champions League. The German boss believes Hunt will get the most out of his Amakhosi charges in Sunday’s derby.

“It's a big game on the weekend against a big club, with quality players and a quality coach. He knows exactly what’s happened in the derbies and in the league. We know what he can do fighting for titles, he has a lot of experience and knows exactly what to say to his players. We know they’re struggling a little bit in the league but you see in the Champions League they’re getting points. The signal is that they’re getting better and better in their games,” Zinnbauer said.

Chiefs put previous results behind them

Despite having lost all three Soweto Derbies this season, AmaKhosi’s coach says that the previous results shouldn’t play too big of a role in Sunday’s crunch clash. 

“What’s gone is gone, we’re going to try and be positive and get a good result out of the game. The score lines look bad, but if you look at the games we had enough chances and we didn’t take them in all three games this season,” Hunt said.

“We didn’t give ourselves anything to hold onto, even in the first game I remember we should have been 2-nil up in ten minutes. We missed two chances and then we conceded.”

Orlando Pirates take on Kaizer Chiefs at 3pm on Sunday.