Soccer Laduma's 'In Touch' 'Still In Touch' feature has been a fan favourite for almost two decades in Soccer Laduma's weekly newspaper.
Millions of readers turn to it first each week to read the crazy stories that Mzansi's former players tell and to see current soccer stars dish the dirt on their teammates and coaches.
Over the years, together with our readers, we have laughed uncontrollably and gasped with disbelief at stories that have never been told before!
Due to the incredible success and reading pleasure over the years and the timeless nature of this incredible content, Soccer Laduma has dug through the archives to bring back to life some of the gems you may have missed, or simply want to re-read and share with your friends.
This week, we look back to 28 April 2010 in issue number 668, where Kaizer Chiefs' ex-legendary goalkeeper Peter Bala'c continues with his recollection of anecdotes from the past. This time, Bala'c regales us with moments not to forget, including his most embarrassing moment, an unpleasant incident that happened in a match between Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows, as well as some of his clumsy coaches at Chiefs.
(Laughing) I've had a few of those, but the one that stands out was when we were playing Moroka Swallows in the semi-final of the Mainstay Cup in Soweto in 1983 and we drew 5-5. Ace Ntsoelengoe scored a hat-trick that day. We were always behind and I let in five! That was embarrassing and unfortunately in the replay we got beaten. I must admit Swallows had a good side back then. Other than that, I can't remember letting one through my legs or dropping one in the back of the goals, because that would have been pretty embarrassing!
Oh, we had some bad coaches and we had some good ones, I can assure you. We had one coach…I cannot remember his name. I think he came from a small black club if I'm not mistaken. I cannot forget the one night when we were playing cards in the hotel. He was coming back from work and he was drunk. He came into our room and he wanted to play cards with us. We went along with it and we let him play. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and he threw his cards into the middle, he fell off the bed and onto the floor and knocked himself out! He didn't last long. We had a guy called Orlando Cesares who came from Brazil and said he used to play with Pele. The guy didn't have a clue! He stayed for two years and we won a few trophies, but I think that's because nobody listened to what he said. We always did the opposite of what he told us to do. He was the worst ever! Before the game we would have our own meeting as players and decide how we were going to play. We couldn't afford to listen to him and on the training ground he was pathetic. The one person who never received much recognition in his day was Eliakim 'Pro' Khumalo, the father of Doctor Khumalo. I remember when I saw Doctor a few years ago, he pulled me aside and asked me, "What was my father like?" Nobody could tell him. Pro was a wonderful man. He would have died for Kaizer Chiefs, he was Kaizer Chiefs through and through, an absolutely lovely man who wanted us to win and do well. During my stay at Chiefs he looked after me and made sure I was okay at all times.
I didn't think about it really. I only thought about it afterwards, Lunga. When we played in Soweto, there were about 1 500 people, mostly children, around the field. I've got films from the games. I remember playing at Kings Park Stadium in Durban in the JPS Cup final and I have pictures of myself trying to take a goal kick and having to move the kids away from my goal. They were physically almost on the pitch. For many of the cup finals in Soweto in 1981, the stadiums were too packed and it was too dangerous for the children to be there among the crowd, so they let them inside the pitch. I'll never forget the one time I played against Pirates and there was a massive crowd behind me and it was all Pirates supporters. I'm standing in my goal and I'm thinking, "If something goes wrong here, I'm in trouble!" I remember someone was stabbed in the head with an axe that day and they were fighting behind me! But I never really felt threatened and they used to look after us. I think the people actually just wanted to touch us because we were Kaizer Chiefs players. If we went out for a walk in preparation for a game, especially when we were playing away, the crowd used to go crazy! I remember when we went to Thohoyandou for a friendly one day… there were 15 000 people at the hotel at 03h00 waiting for us to arrive! There was also another incident when we had a double-header at Ellis Park. Pirates brought two teams onto the field and there was shooting and they were wielding knives on the pitch. That was shown on the BBC and I got a call from my mother in England checking to see if I was okay. Pirates' game against Swallows kicked off at 15h00 and we were going to play at 18h30. As we were watching the game, one of the players got stabbed and there was blood everywhere!
I think one of the cleverest and most sensible players whose name never got mentioned a lot was Shaka Ngcobo. He was nearing the end of his career when I joined Chiefs and I think he would have been very successful in the UK. I know he had a spell somewhere abroad. He was a thinker. He would get on the defenders' nerves. He would talk them to death. They'd fall asleep and he'd score. I used to watch him, he'd touch a player's face and the player would get angry, thinking Shaka was winding him up. Yeah, that was quite funny for me to watch. But one player I rated highly was Teenage Dladla. Very rarely did he have a bad game. You know what I used to do with him? Whenever we had five minutes to go before the end of the game and we were leading, I would throw the ball to Teenage because I knew they couldn't get it from him. He was my 'time-waster'. When I threw it to him, I knew I wouldn't see the ball for a few minutes. He was a wonderful player, had lots of skill and he would have become a worldwide superstar in Spain or England.
No problem, Lunga. I'm interested in doing TV analysis, commentary or journalistic work for any of the TV stations over there in South Africa during the World Cup, so please let that be known. I married a Durban woman so I've got a few friends in Durban and Port Elizabeth, and I'll be down there for six weeks. I've got you on Facebook and I've got your contact details, so let's keep in touch!
Best player I've ever faced: Tornado Ntsibande
Best player I've played with: Teenage Dladla
Biggest pay cheque: R1 300
Smallest pay cheque: R60
Former team that used the most muti: Kaizer Chiefs
Favourite current player: Steven Gerrard
Current occupation: Sales consultant
Former teams: Plymouth Argyle (England), Durban City, Lusitano, Sacramento Gold (America), Kaizer Chiefs
