Keep charging, Chiefs told after victory
WITH the traffic getting tighter near the summit of the Absa Premiership table‚ Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela wants his team to keep pushing until they catch and bypass pacesetters Mamelodi Sundowns.
Amakhosi are still trailing Sundowns by five points after an exhilarating weekend of football – the 17th round in which Orlando Pirates and Free State Stars also made tremendous strides towards the league title.
“I think the race is still open‚” Komphela said.
His team’s league chances were boosted with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Polokwane City at FNB Stadium on Saturday night.
“You could say it’s game on,” Komphela said. “And not only to us but everybody.
“Sundowns are still in with a shot and Orlando Pirates have just created opportunities – and there are still a lot of matches to play. “A win was great for the race. “Keeping in check with the rest of those who are slightly above you is vital. But it was an important win.”
Dumisani Zuma came off the bench to give Amakhosi the muchneeded three points‚ with his header from a good cross by Joseph Molangoane in the 66th minute making all the difference against a fighting Polokwane side.
“With regards to the five-point gap‚ it’s good‚” Komphela said.
“We have to keep hanging in and at least kill two other matches.
“You can’t hope that Sundowns will loose two matches with ease.
“You have to keep pushing and pushing and hoping that we’ll catch them and bypass them.
“So the league is going to be difficult. There’s going to be three or four teams easily competing for it.”
Komphela‚ who was celebrating 100 games in charge of Chiefs on Saturday‚ said he was delighted with his team’s fighting spirit, after going 1-0 down to a 22nd minute Walter Musona thunderbolt free kick.
Ryan Moon‚ in his first start this season‚ ghosted in from the near post to head in Siphiwe Tshabalala’s corner kick in the 31st minute to open his scoring account.
“I thought it was a great comeback‚” Komphela said.
“When you are one-zero down‚ nerves start to rise and confidence gets extended a bit.
“But I thought we kept calm and eventually got ourselves an equaliser‚ which made things easy for us.
“It’s not easy to play against this Polokwane team – and I think the coach [Bernard Molekwa] has done a tremendous job.
“The threats are clear.
“These guys have won matches where you thought, ‘goodness me, how are they doing it’. “They gave us a hard time. “But after 1-1, we could see that it was getting even and we had our confidence back,” Komphela said.
“There were stages where we got threatened and even at 2-1, they could have got an equaliser.
“We need to concentrate more‚ lapses of concentration‚ you cannot do that when you have people like [Jabu] Maluleke in the middle.
“We are delighted with the three points – and happy for [Siphelele] Ntshangase [who made his debut] – but there is a lot of stuff that we still need to work on with him.
“Moon also had a good match, and a good goal, and Zuma’s goal was unbelievable. All three goals were tremendous,” the coach said.
Up next for Chiefs is an away encounter against Baroka FC, in Polokwane, on Sunday. – TimesLIVE