Chippa United coach Daine Klate believes it is too soon to predict about DStv Premiership title race after Mamelodi Sundowns’ slow start to the season.
Sundowns are having an unusual start to the campaign, as they’ve already lost two matches against TS Galaxy and SuperSport United in their opening six league matches.
However, the Tshwane giants returned to winning after edging Klate’s men, Chippa 1-0, at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday evening.
“Sundowns is a quality side, and we respect them, but they lost to SuperSport United and TS Galaxy; it shows that anyone can beat anyone this season,” Klate told the media.
“As I said, anybody can beat anybody; we’ve seen that all over the world, at any given day. That standard thing in football, you can’t predict everything.”
Klate won six league titles as a player, three with SuperSport, two with Orlando Pirates and one with Bidvest Wits. As a result, the former winger turned coach understands what it takes to win the championships.
And he maintains that Sundowns’ lukewarm start to the new season doesn’t mean they won’t be able to defend their DStv Premiership title, as he feels nothing has changed regarding the title race.
“We know their quality, and Sundowns losing so early doesn’t change anything about the title,” added the Chippa coach.
“I remember at Bidvest Wits; we didn’t start well but ended up winning the league. That can also happen to them (Sundowns); we can’t read too much to it; it might be too early to predict the league race.”
Klate’s Chippa are at the bottom of the log after seven matches with a single win against Pirates, four defeats, and two defeats.
This is not an ideal game for Klate, who is under pressure as Chippa is known to be trigger-happy when it comes to firing coaches who don’t produce the desired results.
