City ‘looked nervous’
AFTER WHAT was probably their worst performance of the season in losing 1-0 to Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend, Cape Town City now have to prepare to host Swaziland’s Young Buffaloes in a Caf Confederation Cup preliminary round, second leg tie at Athlone Stadium tomorrow night (7.30pm kickoff). The Cape side won the first leg 1-0 in Mbabane.
City were dire in the defeat to the Soweto side at FNB Stadium on Saturday night. As a result, their hopes of challenging for the PSL title have been dashed – now they have to switch focus to finishing as high as possible on the league standings, go as far as possible in the Confederation Cup, and try to win the Nedbank Cup. City coach Benni McCarthy, though, didn’t mince his words after the Chiefs defeat.
“Too many players did not turn up,” he said. “This is a game where, if you want to win the league, you have to beat the bigger teams, the best teams. You can’t afford to have off days. We were nowhere near our best. We looked nervous and the guys were second best to everything. For me, Chiefs deserved the three points. We had our moments here and there, but we made too many mistakes and we allowed them in.”
The former Bafana Bafana striker was spot-on in his assessment of his team. In short, they were so bad they should really have lost by a far bigger margin. The Cape side lacked creativity and they failed to deal with the opposition’s high press; as a team, they looked disjointed and, in approach, they were largely aimless. Except for the heroics of goalkeeper Sage Stephens, nobody put up their hands, and nobody played to potential. Right-back Thami Mkhize, such a stalwart for the team, probably had his worst-ever performance in a City jersey, Lyle Lakay is developing an unpleasant selfishness to his game, new signing Matthew Rusike was anonymous (though, in fairness, he never got the service he needs to be effective), and Thabo Nodada, Roland Putsche and Sibusiso Masina gave the ball away so often, you’d swear that Christmas had come early.
McCarthy will now be desperate for a better showing from City. He has regularly rotated the squad, which means a different team is likely to turn up against the Swazis tomorrow. Youngster Shane Roberts came on as a substitute against Chiefs, and didn’t look out of place. McCarthy said afterwards the 19-year-old is knocking hard for a regular place and he’ll definitely play tomorrow. Another City youngster, Zukile Kewuti, is also in the mix, while Nana Akosah-Bempah, Judas Moseamedi and Ebrahim Seedat will come into contention too. Captain Robyn Johannes, who was suspended for the Chiefs clash, is also available.