On Sunday, June 13, 2004 Steve Komphela guided the now defunct Manning Rangers to a rare ABSA Cup final but came second best as Moroka Swallows emerged 3-1 winners at the end of 90 gruelling minutes, on a sunny afternoon, at the then Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein.
It was Komphela’s first ever cup final in the infantry days of his coaching career, during a campaign in which he also led Rangers to league safety following his reinstatement as head coach, after former Bafana Bafana coach had actually started as the man in charge before Ian Palmer and Roy Barreto replaced him on the bench.
Eleven years, three months and one week, stretched over club spells at Free State Stars, Platinum Stars and Maritzburg United, is what it has taken Komphela to reach his second cup final.
Kids who were born in the year Komphela last featured in a cup final are already in Grade 5 or 6, demonstrating just how long and patient the 48 year-old has been in challenging for his first club-level winner’s medal, which the nature of his current job demands he delivers.
“The teams are different and the positions are different,” argues Komphela in reference to Amakhosi and The Mighty Maulers.
“I am trying to recall… Manning Rangers was fighting for relegation back then, and we survived. This team [Chiefs] where we are, we’re still looking far ahead so those are two different scenarios, but yes, both are involved in a final.
“With Kaizer Chiefs, when you come here, you accept the job and you just have to know that you have to come to finals and not only be there but win it, because come Sunday the write-ups will be different should it happen that we don’t win it.
“That is not pressure but we are trying to be realistic. So a final again with a different team, and a team that knows how to win trophies, we hope to carry on in the same manner.
"The environment is very relaxed so we will just take it from there and also remember what brought us here. What brought us here will definitely take us through,” says Komphela.
While cup finals could be a territory that the well-spoken mentor might still be getting familiar with, Chiefs is a club that actually demands that trophies be won instead of merely reaching finals, so it is natural that only victory will be celebrated today.
Unbeaten in his opening seven games Komphela will know he doesn’t really have his back against the wall, but reality is that he will lose a lot of sympathisers should this trophy not remain at Naturena, and instead goes to an unfamiliar address named Ikamva, in a suburb called Parow, in Cape Town.
“I don’t know how I was wired because every time that I am under pressure, either my speech goes very slow so that I don’t make mistakes in my deliberation, or I tend to be very calm.
“The essence of leadership is to stay calm when there is a storm. So if pressure brings an element of calmness in me, so be it. For the players, they are enjoying the moment and are very relaxed,” he reasons.
All is well for a man whose team has looked ruthless in attack – scoring 16 goals in seven matches.
“We are not going to change what is working. We have come this far to the final because of a particular way of playing. We are at the position that we are holding on the log because of how we played.
"I don’t think moving into the final we would need a different way of thinking; not unless we are expecting a different outcome, of which anything different from what we have been doing or where we are, might not necessarily give us pleasure, so we are relaxed.
“But it is a special occasion. We want to defend the trophy and make our supporters proud,” says Komphela.