Benni happy ‘monkey off his back’
Victory a boost for Cape Town City
Benni McCarthy’s first reaction was one of relief as his Cape Town City team kicked off the new Premier Soccer League season with a home victory over SuperSport United.
The victory gave City a boost of confidence to take to Baroka FC in midweek, and to Maritzburg United for the next weekend’s MTN8 quarterfinals.
Before he even started his post-match analysis‚ the first thing the 40-year-old coach said was that “the monkey is off my back”, spelling out that the first hurdle towards achieving good performance in the new season had started.
But he was also pleased with a full haul of points after a cracking half volley from Roland Putsche put the Capetonians ahead after 55 minutes, and then substitute Craig Martin made it 2-0 midway through the second half for a full haul of points.
But Aubrey Modiba had a horror miss for SuperSport that should have brought them back into the game.
James Keene was brought down for a clear penalty that was surprisingly not awarded by referee Kulsane Qongqo.
City dominated possession as SuperSport waited to catch them on the counterattack, but for all their ball play they did not really test Ronwen Williams until after half-time.
“We started off a little bit slow‚ more than I expected,” said McCarthy.
“I wanted us to start off well from the get-go‚ make our intentions clear, but our first passes were sloppy and we allowed them to get into the game‚” he said.
“I think we started growing into our own. We knew that they were going to try to press us high because they know that we want to try and play out from the back.
“I told the guys ‘we’ve done it the whole pre-season’ and I think it showed. We kept our composure.”
After the break‚ McCarthy wanted his wingers to get behind the SuperSport defence and also to drag them across.
“We know Morgan [Gould] and Clayton [Daniels] are two very good‚ very experienced central defenders who clean up everything in front of them.
“But if the ball goes behind them‚ turning will be a problem for them.
“That’s exactly what happened,” he said.
“We got Surprise [Ralani] in‚ exactly as we said‚ forcing their defence to shift over.
“And then when you score a goal like that you have to go on and win the game. A fantastic strike by Roland,” said McCarthy.
Near the end‚ though‚ City contrived to allow SuperSport back into the game as they got sloppy.
SuperSport brought Keene and Fagrie Lakay.
“I started getting a bit angry and frustrated with the guys because we started inviting them to get back into the game by making sloppy little passes‚” McCarthy said.
“We need to see out a game properly. It is another area where we need to improve.”
“It’s a long season and this is just the first one.”
City are away against Baroka FC for their next fixture in Polokwane on Wednesday and then meet Maritzburg United away in the MTN8 quarterfinal at the Harry Gwala Stadium next Sunday. on