Tinkler’s perpetuating his amazing cup runs

Congratulations are in order for SuperSport United and Eric Tinkler, who made it into the Caf Confederation Cup final this weekend. Tinkler is now making a habit of reaching cup finals and winning them, and that on its own must give Matsatsantsa a lot of confidence going into the game against TP Mazembe.

SuperSport lived up to the expectations as a big brand in South Africa in reaching this continental final for the first time in the club’s history. It was all down to the determination of the players, which was especially visible considering the hostile environment that they were playing in. They showed bravery and resilience which needs to be applauded.

For those who got a chance to watch the game might have noted the number of police or security personnel surrounding the field. That on its own illustrates the importance of the game for the home side. We cannot afford to discard Tinkler’s knowledge as he knows the continent both as a player and a coach.

On the local scene, Siyabonga Nomvethe scored his 111th goal in the PSL to become the overall leading scorer. I hope these goals he has scored will be a message to our youngsters to learn from this living legend. He takes care of himself and he lives a healthy lifestyle. It is no surprise that he continues to perform the way he does.

If I were in the shoes of the youngsters and also those who are in their prime, I would feel a bit jealous to see Nomvethe run and keep on scoring goals.

The question they should be asking themselves is: if he is still running like a child, what is there to prevent them from reaching his level and emulating him. This is a good point for most of our players to do some self-introspection.

Nomvethe’s success is not only about the club he is playing for but it is about himself. It is his dedication, his discipline, hard work, hunger and humility. These are things players need to learn about. They need to stop waiting for someone to push them. They don’t need to be criticised in the media before they perform.

Moving on to the Soweto derby, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates players still have quite a long way to go in terms of displaying the character and courage required in this big derby. For example, we need the kind of courage and determination that Thabo Qalinge displayed.

If we had the players with almost the same attitude and the arrogance that made him attack without the fear of making a mistake, I feel both teams would have created a lot of scoring opportunities.

Right now the players are afraid of commitment, they were

busy making sideways runs instead of making forward runs. That for me was a determining factor. The players worked hard, we cannot question that, and the coaches worked hard to cancel each other out defensively. Going forward, we need to see runs approaching the goal, but it was not there. That is part of the reason that causes the derby to nearly always finish in a draw.

Lastly, it is not going very well for Sundowns at home in the league so far, having lost all three of their games. When they walk onto the pitch, you can see the players brimmming with confidence, but once they score, they somehow become complacent and lapse of concentration creeps in. The technical team need to keep an eye on it, because this can affect the confidence of the team.