Kaizer Chiefs have produced some of the finest pair of hands in the land – dating back to Eshele Botende, Brian Baloyi, Rowen Fernandez and Itumeleng Khune.
But such has been the downward spiral of the emerging talents and recent buys, the club find themselves in the trenches in their goalkeeping unit.
The Glamour Boys have incredibly kept only one clean sheet and conceded a whopping 14 goals in 11 Betway Premiership games this season.
That has been disappointing, given the fact that all three goalkeepers – Fiacre Ntwari, Brandon Petersen and Bruce Bvuma – have been given a chance to play.
Bvuma has ascended as the No 1 in recent weeks, the club’s youth product responsible for the sole clean sheet in the 1-0 win over Chippa United in the league before New Year.
However, he failed to build on that momentum as he conceded in the 1-0 loss to Cape Town City in the first game of the New Year at the Cape Town Stadium last Sunday.
Bvuma, speaking ahead of their league clash against Stellenbosch FC at the FNB Stadium tonight (7.30pm kick-off), has taken their shortcomings on the chin, saying they must strive to emulate the club’s greats.
“As you’ve mentioned, Chiefs are known for having great goalkeepers. So, we are very much aware of that,” Bvuma said at the club’s village in Naturena yesterday.
“This is something that as the current generation we are working hard on to keep the standard. It’s not easy, but it’s a challenge that we are aware of.
“It’s a challenge that we are embracing, because we always want to make sure that Chiefs have great goalkeepers.”
Bvuma had always shown glimpses of becoming one of the club’s greatest goalkeepers, especially coming from the youth development structures.
However, just when his star was starting to shine, it dimmed. Either Khune displaced him when he came back from an injury, or the management opted for an experienced back-up.
Enter this season. Even with Khune completely out of the picture, the club went on to sign Rwandan international Ntwari from TS Galaxy instead of backing Bvuma for the No 1 spot.
Ntwari had an underwhelming start to life at Chiefs – so much so that he was displaced by Petersen.
But the latter, too, struggled before Bvuma entered the fray to come and rescue the team.
Kaizer Chiefs’ No 1 Bruce Bvuma says everyone is under pressure to keep clean sheets, while the team also knows the threat that Wednesday’s opponents Stellenbosch FC will pose.@IOL @IOLsport @TheStar_news pic.twitter.com/BKTg95Ni6S
“There pressure has been there – whether we are winning or losing. I knew before coming into the team that there’s pressure, and everyone knows that at Chiefs,” Bvuma said.
“This is something that we need to find a way of handling. Of course, I am happy to be back playing – I had to work hard, and work for my opportunity to come.
“It doesn’t make things easier when we are losing, conceding, and stuff. But it’s part of the game – the pressure doesn’t get to me, because I have been here and know how things work.”
With the goalkeeping position hardly fiddled with, it seemed new goalkeeper coach Ilyes Mzoughi had a conundrum when he rotated his troops in search of a solution.
But Bvuma stated that players were selected based on merit, and not on a trial-and-error method to solve the leakage of goals.
“I don’t think there was any issue. It’s all about competition. When you are playing for this team, there’ll always be competition,” Bvuma acknowledged.
“These are international players. Obviously, one will get a chance, and the others will have to wait for their chances. And that’s how the game is.
“It has nothing to do with ‘This one has a problem or not’. It is all about competing. So, whoever gets a chance, we need to support them.”
Chiefs need to support each other all round. Already they are trailing log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns by 15 points, a gap they could trim if they beat Stellies tonight.
“Of course, it’s a worrying factor that we are behind with so many points. Obviously as Kaizer Chiefs, we want to be on top and be the ones who have these kinds of leads,” he said.
“Yes, things haven’t been going well, and we obviously don’t have those numbers right now to be up there. But we are very much aware of that.
“We’ll definitely work hard to accumulate points, and see where we’ll get and finish at the end of the season.”