In football you have giant killers, and in SA soccer there is the Kaizer Chiefs killer, Judas Moseamedi, who banged two past his favourite team to score against and earned Maritzburg United a 2-0 DStv Premiership win at FNB Stadium last night.
Moseamedi's 66th and 79th-minute strikes meant Chiefs remain rooted on just one win in their dismal start to 2020-21.
If United coach Ernst Middendorp felt his return to his old home ground brought with it something to prove, he might have felt a tinge of inner satisfaction at the result. Maritzburg earned their second league win of the season, and in succession, as they appear on track to dislocate themselves from a relegation battle this campaign.
Chiefs will not come across a coach who knows them so intimately this season as their new coach Gavin Hunt's wily predecessor from the last campaign. Middendorp might have felt he had something to prove, given his services were not retained at the end of a 2019-20 campaign in which he guided an ageing squad - that this season had laboured to 13th place coming into Saturday's game, and in 2018-19 finished ninth - to runners-up.
Hunt - suffering a two-window Fifa transfer ban - has not changed personnel from last season. Only a few younger players have become more prominent, and some alterations made in the way the side is structured.
Middendorp had his side set up - with a tough back three of Nazeer Allie, Clayton Daniels and Riyaaz Ismail, and United sitting deep - to shut Amakhosi out, and then try to sneak more than a draw when those rare opportunities inevitably arose. When they did, Moseamedi pounced gleefully.
United are a hardworking team on any day. They were impeccably structured, closed the spaces and covered the yards to deny Amakhosi a chance in an opening half in which both teams' conservatism saw neither goalkeeper tested.
Chiefs lacked a pacey fullback to get forward on the overlap and did not get behind Maritzburg, as the closest either side came to a chance was Khama Billiat's speculative drive that went well wide.
A procession of substitutes after the break from both coaches was aimed at finding a player capable of breaking the deadlock. For Maritzburg, two played a hand in Moseamedi's goals.
Gadinkame Modise replaced an ineffective Daylon Claasen from the break. It was United's youth international who provided the assist for their opener.
Cardoso cleared a cross only as far as Modise on the right, who crossed back in and Moseamedi got in ahead of Akumu to get a touch past Daniel Akpeyi.
From a long throw from another substitute, Kiwi Dan Morgan, Moseamedi was able to control on the left of the area, turn, and strike past Akpeyi from a narrow angle.
Kaizer Chiefs (0) 0
Maritzburg United (0) 2
GOALS: Maritzburg United - Judas Moseamedi (66, 79th)
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