Kaizer Chiefs: How Amakhosi fared in their opening league matches since 2015/16 season

Kaizer Chiefs will look to get their house in order and end their four-year trophy drought as the 2019/20 PSL season gets underway. 

But their opening league match results over the past four seasons have not been up to their title-aspiration standards. 

Amakhosi last won the PSL title in 2015 under the tutelage of Stuart Baxter, but since then, they have had to get their campaigns underway away from home. 

This time around, Chiefs get their season underway with a clash away to Highlands Park at the Makhulong Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 

Goal takes a look at their results in their opening matches of the season over the past four seasons of their struggles. 

2015/16 season

This was Steve Komphela’s first season in charge of the Glamour Boys following Baxter’s departure from the club. 

Komphela led Amakhosi against Chippa United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, but the team failed to find the back of the net let alone win the match. 

The match ended in a goalless draw; a disappointing result given that Amakhosi were the defending champions at the time. 

Chiefs finished the season in the fifth position at the end of the 2015/16 campaign.  

2016/17 season 

Amakhosi were pitted against Bidvest Wits in their opening match of the 2016/17 season. 

Again, this was an away match for the Soweto giants, and they went down 2-1 to Gavin Hunt’s charges. 

This was soon after the club had made wholesale changes to their squad and losing a few of their experienced players including the likes of Reneilwe Letsholonyane.   

Chiefs had an improved season as they ended up in the fourth position with 50 points after 30 league games.   

2017/18 season

The Naturena-based outfit kicked started their campaign away to Bloemfontein Celtic in Komphela’s final season. 

The two sides played to a 1-1 draw with Amakhosi squandering their lead and allowing Phunya Sele Sele to claw back. 

At this stage, it was clear that Amakhosi’s problems were deepening, however, they kicked on to end up in position three at the end of the campaign, but with two points less than the previous season.   

2018/19 season

An unusual start to a PSL campaign saw Kaizer Chiefs visit Mamelodi Sundowns in their opening league match. 

The two rivals settled for a share of the spoils in Tshwane as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.  

This was Giovanni Solinas’ first match in charge of Amakhosi, taking over from Patrick Mabedi who had been the interim coach.  

Ernst Middendorp then replaced Solinas, but the German mentor couldn’t help the club make the top eight.