Malesela downplays Chippa win

Coach aims to work on team’s mental strength ahead of season start

CHIPPA United coach Dan “Dance” Malesela does not want to read too much into Saturday’s 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs in the Premiers Cup at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane.

And if the Chilli Boys were to avoid fighting relegation come the end of the 2017-18 Absa Premiership League, Malesela said he had to work on his players’ mental strength.

He said on Saturday that he had to work on “fixing” the players’ minds ahead of the start of the season.

“We need to be very consistent in terms of our thinking, because this game is controlled by this thing, upstairs,” he said, pointing to his head.

Malesela said it would be disrespectful to the other 15 teams in the league if he were to predict where they would finish this season, based on Saturday’s game.

“You can’t judge through this game, you know, otherwise I’d be disrespecting other PSL clubs. We play Kaizer Chiefs and I’m thinking other PSL clubs are a walkover or something. That would be very wrong of me.

“You can’t judge now. You have to take a number of games in the league and then start saying ‘oh now there’s direction’.

“And you must understand [with] friendlies sometimes people want to impress to [be in] the starting lineup, and you’d be deceived if you start thinking we have arrived or anything like that,” he said.

Malesela said he was yet to sit with his technical team and players and decide how many points they were targeting this season to avoid ending in the same position as last year.

Chiefs coach Steve Komphela was also happy with his experimental team’s play.

“Chippa play good football and I think they gave us a good start of season exercise in the first half where we needed to control them.

“There were players we needed to see play and we are happy we can go back to the drawing board. We want to be able to change the whole team and still not feel a pinch.

“In the second half, we played better than the first half. For instance if I take out [Willard] Katsande and put in [Wiseman] Meyiwa we must still be there, so you tend to work things until they are tight,” Komphela said.

He said had they played the same way they did in the Carling Black Label Cup against Pirates, things would have turned out differently.

“Meyiwa played very well today. Philani Zulu was okay. Kgotso Malope also played well. Dumisani Zuma also gave me something to smile about. Keagan Buchanan also played well today.

“You must not take away anything from Chippa. They play with patience and stress-free and they play very good football,” he said.