The Team of Choice are targeting only their second Cup final across all competitions in the top flight but it’s not going to be easy against Amakhosi
Maritzburg United go into Sunday’s Telkom Knockout Cup semi-final against Kaizer Chiefs as the underdogs and with nothing to lose.
While they have Eric Tinkler as coach, who won this competition with Cape Town City before, the Team of Choice haven’t been too lucky in the competition over the past nine seasons.
Maritzburg Utd have struggled to get past the quarter-final stages of the TKO and this is their first semi-final since the 2010/11 season.
However, just like their Sunday’s opponents, Chiefs, Maritzburg United needed penalties to get to the semi-finals.
During that season, United were drawn against Amakhosi’s arch-rivals Orlando Pirates in the semi-finals and they were hammered 3-0, but the Houghton-based side lost to their nemesis in the final.
In 2011, the Pietermaritzburg outfit was knocked out by Santos in the first round (Round of 16) through an Erwin Isaacs goal.
However, they went a step further the following year (2012) only to lose 2-0 to SuperSport United in the quarter-finals.
It was back to square one for the Team of Choice during the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons as they were ousted in the Round of 16 by the now-defunct Platinum Stars and Kaizer Chiefs, respectively.
Dikwena recorded a convincing 2-0 win over Maritzburg while Amakhosi won 1-0 against their KZN opponents.
Maritzburg United were again up against the Sea Robbers during the 2015/16 campaign, this time at the quarter-final stage, and Pirates made lightweight of them by registering a comfortable 2-0 win.
Tinkler’s team got another draw the following season as they faced Amakhosi in the Round of 16 but they held their own for 120 minutes of football before going down 4-2 on penalties.
Just like Chiefs and Pirates, Maritzburg United’s worst enemy in the competition was Platinum Stars, who beat 3-1 on penalties in the Round of 16 of the 2017/18 season.
Last season, Maritzburg United had Bidvest Wits as their quarter-final opponents and Gavin Hunt’s men did the job at the quarter-final stage and went all the way to lifting the trophy at the expense of Bloemfontein Celtic in Durban.
Of all the abovementioned nine matches for Maritzburg Utd since 2010, what’s concerning is that they scored just once in open play, and that was against Wits last season.
They face a Chiefs team that has reached each of the last three Telkom Knockout Cup semi-finals, including a final in 2015 when Steve Komphela was still their head coach.
The odds aren’t great for Tinkler’s men but will they weather the storm, beat Chiefs and reach their first TKO final on Sunday? Only time will time.
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