Soweto Derby Tactical Review

In the 174th Soweto derby, Kaizer Chiefs celebrated a crucial 2-1 victory over rivals Orlando Pirates in a tight-fought encounter last weekend. For Chiefs, it was the 4th win of the season that was brought on by their dangermen Khama Billiat and Keagan Dolly, who have so far combined the most of all Chiefs players for goals and assists this season.

On the other end, for Pirates it was down to a goal-keeping error that allowed Pirates back into the game through Linda Mntambo before a penalty for a shove from Olisah Ndah allowed Dolly to convert from the spot. The result placed the AmaKhosi in sixth place, one place and one point (15 points) above their rivals in seventh position. Laduma Analytics breaks down the Soweto derby for us below.

Possession and Threat

Taking out one-off incidents in the match such as penalties, the derby again showed everyone how the two teams will play for the remainder of the 1st half of the season bar any personnel changes that may occur. In this past weekend’s match, Orlando Pirates had attempted nearly twice as many passes (633) than Kaizer Chiefs did (318) at a rate of 85% and 77% success rate. The first half saw Pirates create very few opportunities bar a close range header from Fortune Makaringe while the second half was a more dominant and attacking display by the Buccaneers despite conceding two goals at the beginning and end of the half.

It is understandable how some people viewed the game as a dominant display by Pirates when the visitors had 66% ball possession for the entire game however many would question if they used it effectively. In actual fact, they created very little attacking threat despite having most of the ball. In some shape or form, AmaKhosi looked far more developed as a team since Stuart Baxter’s return than Pirates did as they continue to form a new-ish identity under Fadlu Davids and Mandla Ncikazi, which is completely reasonable.

Mapping all the successful passes of both teams, we can create a passing network showing the most used combinations between any set of players. The most used combination as is evident by the thickness of the lines between any two Pirates players was between the two central defenders Olisah Ndah and Thulani Hlatshwayo. Hence, the map below gives incredible insight into how often the ball was moved across the backline multiple times before an attack was launched, which often was a long ball forward into space for the forwards to run onto.

Linda Mntambo

Having played very little football in the past 18 months, Mntambo is after somewhat becoming a vital member of the newly managed Buccaneers squad. He is by our measurement one of the player’s producing the most attacking capabilities in this Pirates side whilst also simultaneously now scoring in his third league game in a row. While the attacking midfielder is currently in red hot form, he is by no means the player Pirates should depend on for more goals as the season continues. One player who did get to showcase his abilities for his debut was young Ghanian forward Kwame Peprah.

Kwame Peprah

The young Ghanian got his first start for Orlando Pirates in one of the clubs biggest matches of the season having made numerous substitute appearances over the previous few months. He played well for the 70 minutes taking two shots and muscling his way past Eric Mathoho a few times and putting one left-footed shot wide of Daniel Akpeyi’s goal in the second half.

Kaizer Chiefs

We mentioned a few weeks back how Kaizer Chiefs were creating lots of chances but struggled to put the ball into the net (link). They have now seemed to surpass that hurdle and are scoring freely due to the dangerous combinations of two individuals up front – Billiat and Dolly. Whilst the passing statistics and success rates make for an interesting read, the team cared very little for much ball possession but rather used pace in attack to exploit the opposition where possible.

Their ability to exploit the number of players that Pirates committed forward, whilst also trying to keep a solid defensive structure at the back was intriguing to watch. Especially the ability of Phathutshedzo Nange to cover extremes of distances whilst also moving the ball up the field of play helped Billiat and Dolly to be their creative selves. Their pace caused Pirates a lot of struggle but it was two costly individual errors that lost Pirates the derby in the end.

Their pass network below indicates this with there being much less of an emphasis on holding onto the ball but rather moving the ball through quick sequences of play up the field.