Captains’ absence give coaches extra homework
Skippers Masehe and Furman to be missed as Ea Lla Koto, SuperSport go head to head
Interestingly, Free State Stars and SuperSport United will be without their team leaders for their encounter at Goble Park Stadium tonight (7.30pm).
Stars captain Paulus Masehe and his counterpart Dean Furman will both miss the clash due to suspension.
The hosts’ coach Luc Eymael could have done with Masehe’s leadership qualities to guide the boys in their attempt to bounce back from their 3-0 humiliating loss to rivals Bloemfontein Celtic at the weekend.
Eymael was at a loss for words to explain what went wrong against Celtic, but has urged his side to immediately redeem themselves with a top eight place in mind before the end of the year.
“It was so bad against Celtic. The boys didn’t come to the party and if I had the possibility to bring in new rules and change seven players I would have done it. We had an off day and I never saw that in my life,” Eymael told Sowetan yesterday.
“We are coming from a bad game against Celtic and I hope my players have taken some lessons from that, so we can collect points.”
Eymael, though, admitted that Ea Lla Koto will be up against a good coach in Eric Tinkler.
“Eric has a good team that had a good run in the [CAF] Confederation Cup. He’s got a good track record. He’s already won the MTN8 and he certainly wants to compete for the title also,” added the Belgian.
Like Eymael, Tinkler was unhappy with his team’s last result, a 1-1 home draw against Cape Town City at Mbombela Stadium at the weekend.
Stars and SuperSport played to two goalless draws in their league encounters last season.