Something’s not right in Chiefs camp
It’s confusing, says Komphela
Nothing is wrong but just something is not right.
This, even by the philosophical Steve Komphela’s admission, sounds weird but that’s how the Amakhosi coach summed up their elimination from the MTN8 on Saturday.
“It’s confusing,” Komphela said after an early goal by Jeremy Brockie at the Moses Mabhida Stadium sent SuperSport United to the last four of the competition.
“We did everything right; we played the Chiefs way but ... the ball just didn’t go into the net. Do you falter players? Not at all.
“When you don’t bring positive results it becomes difficult to move on. Players create chances, but we don’t hit the back of the net.”
Komphela, however, still drew satisfaction at how his side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession against a SuperSport side that also admitted to having pulled off a smashand-grab.
“Apart from the defeat, the boys must have enjoyed themselves. We need to inspire these kids to keep on pushing,” added Komphela, whose side will face Bloemfontein Celtic away in their Absa Premiership opener on Sunday.
Meanwhile, SuperSport coach Eric Tinkler was just more than happy to start his tenure at Matsatsantsa on a positive note.
“We always knew the intensity will be something that we’d probably struggle with after we watched Chiefs against [Orlando] Pirates [in the Carling Cup three weeks ago],” said Tinkler at a postmatch conference.
“We spent quite some time working on our defence and we wanted to hurt them on the break, and we did that, but we really struggled on the ball after 15 minutes of the first half.”
Tinkler pointed at their shortfalls to “being back now for close to three weeks in training”.
“[But] we defended like lions. Players put a fantastic shift and showed winning mentality. The positives we can take out is the winning mentality and the never-saydie attitude.”
United open their league campaign at the Lucas Moripe Stadium against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
‘‘ We did everything right, we played the Chiefs way