Tembo: Rotation is now vital for those ‘heavy legs’

There is not a team in the whole of the Premier Soccer League that has played in, and won more finals than SuperSport United in the past 10 years, and that has seen the capital city side establishing themselves as the new cup specialists of South African football.

Today, however, United are licking their wounds after they were knocked out in the opening round of the Nedbank Cup for the second year running.

Last year they were taken down by rivals and eventual winners, Mamelodi Sundowns and this time around it was top-flight rookies, Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila, who beat them 1-0 on Thursday.

SuperSport average at least one final in each of the last 10 seasons, where they have won six and lost four.

They won their first title of the last decade in the 2011/12 season, when they stunned

Masandawana 2-0 at the Orlando Stadium.

Matsatsantsa were, until Sundowns joined the party, the only side to have won the Nedbank Cup on three occasions.

SuperSport also won the MTN8 last season, which is now held by Orlando Pirates, as United were sent packing by Bloemfontein Celtic in a two-legged semifinal.

They might not be up for any knockout silverware this time around, but the side have put up their hand as contenders for the DStv Premiership title.

“I can’t fault the guys, I think we could have played the whole day and still not scored,” said United head coach Kaitano Tembo after the loss to TTM.

“We had opportunities...but we lacked the killer instinct in the final third. In terms of effort, the guys tried, they gave their all.

“Credit to Tshakhuma, they fought as a team and really deserved to win the game because they took the chance that they got. That is how it is in football,” said Tembo (above).

His next appointment is in the league this coming Tuesday against Bloemfontein Celtic and he says he will have to juggle his squad a bit as some of his players are carrying heavy legs.

“We need to try and manage the team because recovery is very important, the games are a little bit too close to each other. We will try to make sure that we bring fresh legs for the game against Celtic.

Luke Fleurs and Keenan Phillips couldn’t even move because they are young players and they have been playing far too much football.”