Kaizer Chiefs roll on in Cup
Castro, Mathoho find the net to see off Stellenbosch
KAIZER Chiefs’ passage to the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup was not pretty or convincing‚ but coach Steve Komphela was delighted to at least find one promising aspect of his team’s play. Chiefs beat First Division outfit Stellenbosch FC 2-1 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday night to progress to the last eight of the competition they have dominated over the years.
Komphela highlighted his new striking combination of Leonardo Castro and Bernard Parker as something he could work on going forward.
“I think it worked well‚” Komphela said of his decision to leave Ryan Moon on the bench and start with Parker alongside Castro. If you look at the second goal, it came from Parker. He touched that ball and it went on to Castro to finish.
“As a coach you can even put Parker into 10 and have two 10s if you want to.
“I thought they coped well and they combined. You could build from that‚ there were certain positives that we can look back at. I thought it worked well.”
The two strikers‚ who at times tended to want to fetch the ball from deep‚ linked up well for the second goal in the second stanza‚ the Colombian Castro latching on to Parker’s pass to give Chiefs a 2-0 lead with his third goal since joining Amakhosi in January.
Parker was also the supplier of Chiefs’ first goal‚ his corner-kick in the 27th minute headed in by defender Eric Mathoho.
But overall Komphela will be concerned about his team making heavy weather of their win.
Parker‚ Siphiwe Tshabalala‚ Joseph Molangoane and perennial misser of easy sitters Pule Ekstein all had opportunities to score for Chiefs but wasted them.
Chiefs will have to be better on the front foot at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday when they entertain AmaZulu FC in a league encounter.
Meanwhile, Ubuntu Cape Town stunned AmaZulu FC 3-2 in the Nedbank Cup last-16 match in Durban on Friday night.
The hosts were in control of the match in the early stages, but they were struggling to penetrate the Ubuntu defence.
The away side took a surprise lead in the seventh minute when Jesse Donn whipped a cross into the box and Clint Fredericks headed home to make it 1-0 to Ubuntu.
It was soon 2-0 to the away side following an attack against the run of play a few minutes before the half-hour mark.
Donn’s deflected cross found an unmarked Duncan Adonis on the edge of the AmaZulu box and the latter scored with a low shot to make it 2-0 to Ubuntu.
The Usuthu were exposed after half time and punished by the Mother City side just three minutes after the restart following a goal from Kamohelo Mahlatsi
The momentum was with the hosts in the closing stages of the game and they deservedly made it 3-1 through substitute Mabhuti Khenyeza, who scored with a great header.
However, Ovidy Karuru was not to be denied in the 90th minute as he scored with a thunderous header to make it 3-2, with Khoza well-beaten.
The visitors managed to hold on to their lead in the dying minutes of the game. – TimesLIVE, additional reporting by SuperSport.com