City are not looking at what Wits, Sundowns and Pirates are doing

CAPE TOWN CITY coach Benni McCarthy downplayed his team’s place among the PSL title contenders, while he awaits a baptism of fire from teams he argues are the real championship contenders.

But that doesn’t mean that City will be meek. That’s not how McCarthy rolls. If City don’t win the league title, as McCarthy expects, they will play a role in deciding where it goes. City visit Wits at Bidvest Stadium tomorrow (8.15pm kickoff). They will then host Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday, while their second last league match of the season will be against Orlando Pirates at home on 8 May.

“We’re not title contenders, it’s just that people see us in fourth position and think that we’re title contenders,” McCarthy said. “We don’t fall into that (category). We just want to enjoy ourselves and our football. We want to improve, grow and win football matches. If we end up in a good position, it’s a plus for the effort that the players have put in. That’s it! We’re not looking at what Wits, Sundowns and Pirates are doing. We’re running our own race, focusing on what’s on our plate and expect the best.”

City and McCarthy’s inexperience at this stage is the reason why the league trophy will not be heading to the Mother City in May. City still exhibit tactical naivety at a stage of the season when genuine title contenders are ruthless. They were played off the park in the first half against the Brazilians on Wednesday. If Sundowns were more ruthless, the match would have stopped being a contest in the first half. City’s best attribute, their fighting spirit, came out in the second half and they made the scoreline more respectable at 3-2 despite having an off day.

“It’s definitely not getting easy for us,” McCarthy said. “We couldn’t have asked for a tougher run. We’re looking forward to welcoming them (Sundowns) in Cape Town. Sundowns were excellent. But we scored two goals. We didn’t disappoint or let ourselves too much down, and that was us not at our best, yet we were able to lose only 3-2. We were operating at 60 percent. It wasn’t our best performance and I know that a lot of players will not like to hear me use that term, but we weren’t fully at our best. The positive is that come next week, we’ll be at our best and ready to play.”

But before Sundowns, City must face a tough Wits team who had monopolised top spot in the league before the Brazilians overtook them.

“We will try to win all our games and we know that it’s not possible with the side that we have,” McCarthy said. “We aren’t as big as other teams and we don’t have the experience of the teams who have won titles before. We don’t have a lot of those in our dressing-room. But we don’t want to come to teams like Sundowns, roll over and give them three points. We want to compete. We’re not in the title race. For me Wits, Pirates and Sundowns are the title chasers. We’re just there to accompany them and try our best to ruffle feathers.”