The former Bafana Bafana teammates square off for the first piece of silverware of the 2017/18 season, with SuperSport United coach Tinkler facing his former club and battling against his successor, who he also had under his watch while assistant coach at Orlando Pirates.
“There’s always a rivalry, because they are both winners – coach Eric is a winner and there’s no doubt that he wants to go into this game and get one over us,” said Johannes. “We beat SuperSport last season in the Telkom Knockout final, and they want to win just as much as we do.
“But we have to focus on ourselves – it’s not about the coaches or any individual players, it’s about Cape Town City against SuperSport, and we have to make sure we lift the cup, no matter who is in our way, SuperSport or Chiefs or whoever. So it’s nothing personal, we all want to win and create our own history.”
Johannes says his side are highly motivated to ensure their coach ends his first cup final as a manager with victory.
“Coach Benni is a winner – I’ve always said that from the minute he joined the club,” he said. “He’s played at the highest level, and is now in a new position coaching, and for me all I want is for him to win his first cup – nothing will make me happier than that.
“And as usual we will all wear our heart on our sleeve and give it our all, as Benni deserves to go on and have an amazing career, as he did as a player, and hopefully he’ll be able to do that as a coach. And it starts with this, in his first cup final, and we’ll make sure we’ll give it our all so he lifts it.”
Kick-off at Moses Mabhida Stadium is set for 19h00.