Taylor-made Knockout draw
2007-09-18 16:49
Johannesburg - It emerged looking uncannily like a tailor-made draw when the lucrative 2007 Telkom Knockout soccer tournament was launched with the kind of brazen razzamatazz and bravado to that at the adjoining T20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and Pakistan at the Wanderers on Tuesday.
The much-required first-round draw card to kick-start an event that offers a record South African winners' prize of R4.25m was provided in the shape and form of an intriguing derby match-up between traditional rivals Moroka Swallows and Kaizer Chiefs.
Brain-storming meeting
The semi-seeded draw at the same time gave recent Supa8 finalists Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates the comfort of home games against opposition from the lower regions of the PSL log table.
And had the "wise men" of the PSL huddled together in a brain-storming meeting to decide the draw, they could hardly have completed a more appropriate and neatly-defined jigsaw of fixtures.
Although the format in operation seeded the teams finishing in the top eight places in last season's Premier League, other entrenched rules which normally ensured the number one team played number 16 and so on, while also granting the seeded teams automatic home-ground advantage, were not utilised.
Thus ninth-placed Chiefs emerged with a home game against third-placed Premier League team Swallows, with dates and venues of the games that will be staged towards the end of the month scheduled to be announced later on Tuesday.
And in another uncanny coincidence, four of the eight seeded teams will play at home and the four others will be away.
Telkom also maintained the splurge of money associated with the tournament which boasts more than R10m overall in prize money by announcing that diminutive Platinum Stars striker Simba Marumo, who guided his team to the title in last year's initial Knockout Final when they were known as Silver Stars, was handed a handsome special award of R100 000.
Telkom Knock-out first round draw, with home teams mentioned first:
Mamelodi Sundowns v Golden Arrows.
AmaZulu v Platinum Stars
Kaizer Chiefs v Moroka Swallows
Ajax Cape Town v Free State Stars
Orlando Pirates v Benoni Premier United
Santos v SuperSport United
Wits University v Jomo Cosmos
Bloemfontein Celtic v Black Leopards.
Dates and venues to be announced.
- SAPA