However, the winner at the Calabash could propel themselves right back into a promising position. Pirates, even more so than Chiefs, could instantly shift the dynamics of a title race that appears to be tilting in Mamelodi Sundowns<\/a>‘ favour.<\/p>\n Sundowns have won the last eight Premiership titles, but have been inconsistent this season. Still, they sit top of the league after their 2-1 win over Pirates on Feb. 18 at FNB Stadium was followed up with a 1-0 win over AmaZulu.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n The cracks showed in between those two victories as Sundowns were dumped out of the Nedbank Cup 2-0 by TS Galaxy<\/a> in the round of 16.<\/p>\n Pirates – who have already won the MTN8 and Carling Knockout this season – followed up their Sundowns defeat with a humiliating penalty shootout loss to second tier Casric Stars.<\/p>\n However, it is still only goals scored separating Sundowns and Pirates at the top of the table. If Abdeslam Ouaddou masterminds a win over Amakhosi in his debut Soweto derby, then Pirates will go top of the table ahead of Sundowns’ Sunday clash with Sekhukhune United<\/a> – a potential banana skin.<\/p>\n Chiefs missed a chance to leapfrog Sekhukhune into third place as they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Stellenbosch<\/a> in midweek. It was their third loss in a row to the Maroons and their second by the same scoreline in quick succession. Stellenbosch had also knocked them out of the Nedbank Cup.<\/p>\n Still, a win over Pirates would put Chiefs in third place, only five points off the top of the table – and assert that this season is a three-horse race rather than another to be contested by the same two clubs that have dominated South African football for most of the last decade.<\/p>\n Date: Saturday, Feb. 28 at 15:30 CAT (13:30 GMT)<\/p>\n Venue: FNB Stadium, Nasrec, Johannesburg<\/p>\n How to watch: The match will be aired on SuperSport’s DSTV channel 202 (SuperSport PSL)<\/p>\n Team news<\/p>\n Ethan Chislett<\/a> – an off-season signing following his release from Port Vale – finally got a long-awaited debut for Chiefs against Stellies and had bright moments.<\/p>\n There has been much speculation regarding the futures of Sipho Mbule<\/a>, Thalente Mbatha<\/a> and Kabelo Dlamini<\/a> – who have seen limited minutes recently for Pirates.<\/p>\n Agent Mike Makaab has claimed<\/a> that Mbatha and Mbule’s minutes on the pitch have been affected by injuries.<\/p>\n Abdeslam Ouaddou has said the same of Dlamini, who Kaizer Chiefs legend Tsepo Masilela said he would like to see in Amakhosi colours, via SoccerBeat<\/a>. This, of course, is a move recently made by Chiefs fullback duo Paseka Mako<\/a> and Thabiso Monyane.<\/p>\n There is no definitive proof regarding the condition of the midfield trio, but Pirates fans will hope to have as many options as possible available for a crucial clash.<\/p>\n Expected lineups<\/p>\n Kaizer Chiefs<\/p>\n GK Brandon Petersen<\/p>\n LB Bradley Cross<\/a> | CB Zitha Kwinika | CB Aden McCarthy | RB Thabiso Monyane<\/p>\n CM Nkosingiphile Ngcobo<\/a> | CM Lebo Maboe<\/p>\n LW Makabi Glody Lilepo | AM Ethan Chislett | RW Mduduzi Shabalala<\/a><\/p>\n ST Fl\u00e1vio da Silva<\/p>\n Orlando Pirates<\/p>\n GK Sipho Chaine<\/a><\/p>\n LB Deon Hotto<\/a> | CB Lebone Seema<\/a> | CB Nkosinathi Sibisi<\/a> | RB Deano van Rooyen<\/p>\n CM Masindi Nemtajela<\/a> | CM Makhehlene Makhaula<\/a><\/p>\n LW Oswin Appollis<\/a> | AM Relebohile Mofokeng | RW Tshepang Moremi<\/a><\/p>\n ST Yanela Mbuthuma<\/p>\n Stats:<\/p>\n Orlando Pirates have won the last four Premiership Soweto derbies, but Chiefs beat the Buccaneers in last season’s Nedbank Cup final.<\/p>\n Relebohile Mofokeng has three goals and two assists in his last four league appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 25, 2026, 03:04 AM ET Both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates head into Saturday’s Soweto derby at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-168259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kaizer Chiefs players at training.\u00a0Kaizer Chiefs\/InstagramKey details<\/p>\n