STATS: Baroka v Chiefs and other weekend matches | Uncategorized

Second place is up for grabs for Kaizer Chiefs when they travel to Baroka late on Saturday evening. A rollercoaster season has seen Chiefs go from a bottom-half team and then to potential title contenders and back to joining a plethora of teams chasing second. With the Soweto derby looming in the horizon, a match against the league’s basement side is the perfect opportunity to strengthen their bid for that top two finish. The race for second has been congested.

9 – Nine teams have ended the day in 2nd place since the start of the season: Arrows, Chippa, Stellenbosch, Pirates, Supersport, Chiefs, Royal AM, Sekhukhune and AmaZulu.

Both teams had disappointing results in their last league games. Chiefs’ 0-0 draw will be considered a better result in hindsight, but not even the most optimistic of Chiefs followers would have been happy with that result. Baroka were hammered 4-0 by Sekhukhune, suffering their heaviest defeat since December 2017, and their second heaviest defeat since they became a top-flight side. They are more in need of a pick-me-up result, but history shows that won’t come easy.

1 – Baroka have won just one of their last nine games against Chiefs, winning four & drawing the other four.

The odd thing about Baroka’s defeat is that they actually put up an impressive performance against Sundowns the week before. They ended up holding the defending champions to a 1-1 draw, proof that they have a good performance in them – when they want to. However, the bad news is that those big performances do not come often enough. They need to churn them out on a more regular basis and with urgency because they are running out of time to get out of the relegation zone.

1 – Baroka have won just one of their last 15 league matches, their worst 15-game run since March/April 2018 (also one win in 15).

Having said that, Kaizer Chiefs can not take anything for granted here. Indeed, memories of the title deciding weekend from the 2019/20 season may come flooding back for Chiefs’ fans. It was Baroka that prevented them from breaking (what was then) a 5-year trophy drought with another brave 1-1 draw. Having led the league for most of the season, it was opposition cult-hero Manuel Kambala that broke Chiefs’ hearts.

379 – Chiefs spent 379 days atop the table in the 2019/20 season, but ended up losing the title to Sundowns who had not led for a single day.

Other matches

Chippa v Marumo Gallants

Since 20 February 2022, Chippa’s home league record reads: Played 22 Won 1. Ironically, the only home win came courtesy of a Kurt Lentjies goal (1-0 v Stellenbosch). Their seven draws is a league high for home matches, and it’s no wonder they are among the relegation candidates.

1 – Chippa are the only team yet to win a home game this season (W0, D7, L2).

Sekhukhune v Swallows

Sekhukhune’s six match winless run ended in emphatic fashion when they beat Baroka 4-0 last week. They will be looking to equal a PSL record when they host Swallows today. In fact, they have 11 games to equal it. Only Sundowns (13) have more clean sheets in the league than Sekhukhune this season (10). 

11 – The PSL record for clean sheet by a newly-promoted side is 11.

By Opta Jabu

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