WHEN Knowledge Musona scored his splendid strike for Zimbabwe against Bafana Bafana in midweek, there must have been plenty of Kaizer Chiefs fans with conflicting emotions.
On the one hand, Musona’s blast began the condemnation of South Africa to an embarrassing home defeat to the Warriors. On the other, the strike can only have boosted the confidence of a man yet to score a competitive goal in his second spell at the Amakhosi.
Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter was one to admit his delight that Musona had scored for his country, as he spoke at the Chiefs village ahead of Saturday night’s Absa Premiership clash with Maritzburg United.
“I was happy to see Knowledge hit the back of the net,” said Baxter.
“I suppose if I was patriotic I shouldn’t enjoy that too much, but a part of me thought it would do Knowledge the world of good. I have to excuse myself and say I was not 100 percent disappointed.
“Knowledge also played now in a practice game against Aces and scored and he got one in Bloemfontein (in the pre-season Macufe cup). But to get one in a high profile game … will have done him the world of good.
“I hope he now brings that form back to club football. He has done okay, but when you are a striker, people say he didn’t score, it gets in your head. Now he has scored, he can get on with it.”
A new face at Chiefs training on Thursday was 21-year-old trialist Ugandan defender Ivan Bukenya, who Baxter said Chiefs are looking at as cover for both the centre of defence and defensive midfield, with particular regard to Willard Katsande’s tendency to get booked.
“He came in this morning, we haven’t seen him at all yet,” said Baxter.
“But with the conversation we have had with people who have played with him and seen him, we hope he can give us a bit of cover at centre-back and central midfield.
“We have quite a combative midfielder in Willard (Chiefs’ other Zimbabwean international), and we are trying to make sure he remains combative without being reckless.
“On the other hand, we have to make sure we have cover, we don’t want him (Katsande) to just be a cone, standing there and not tackling.
“We want him to play his normal game, and not be as reckless and pick up as many cards. But in the real world, we know he will pick up some cards, so we want this boy (Bukenya) to cover both positions. We’ll see if he (Bukenya) can be a Kaizer Chiefs player, we don’t know yet.”Advertisement

WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday: University of Pretoria v Bloemfontein Celtic (Tuks Stadium); Free State Stars v Platinum Stars (Goble Park); AmaZulu v Moroka Swallows (Moses Mabhida Stadium, 6pm); Kaizer Chiefs v Maritzburg Utd (FNB Stadium, 8:15pm)
Sunday: Black Aces v SuperSport United (Mbombela Stadium); Polokwane City v Golden Arrows (Peter Mokaba Stadium).