Citizens are ready to get tough
And they’ll have to be against Amakhosi
THE third time is said to the charm but that’s been proving to be otherwise for Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy when it comes to his Premiership aspirations.
McCarthy is in his third professional coaching season with the Citizens, having done well in the first two after leading his troops to back-to-back MTN8 finals.
In his second season, Bafana Bafana’s all-time leading goal scorer clinched the Wafa-Wafa competition, defeating SuperSport United 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out.
That success last season became the fuel that made the club and supporters believe they could successfully challenge for the main prize, the Absa Premiership, only for the wheels to come off barely six games before the finish-line due to inconsistency.
Furthermore, McCarthy has endured an underwhelming start to his third term at City, currently sitting 10th on the Premiership standings with eight points, 11 adrift of pacesetters Kaizer Chiefs.
So far, they’ve had one win, two defeats and five draws.
Reacting to that disappointing run and yesterday’s Telkom Knockout quarter-final draw against Kaizer Chiefs, City striker Siphelele Mthembu believes an adaptation of a positive mindset is what will probably change their fortunes around.
“I think once you get something wrong or right in your mind, it always stays in your subconscious mind. So whenever that we play and it’s a draw, then we think, here we go again, so it does that,” Mthembu said.
“If we can change to the winning mindset, I think that will be better for us. When we are leading a game, we have to tell ourselves to put it to bed. I think us as players need to change the way we think.”
The Citizens will host Chiefs in the opening round of the Telkom Knockout on the weekend of October 18-19. However, Mthembu and company will be out to prevent déjà vu having already suffered a 2-1 defeat to Ernst Middendorp’s men this season.
In the bigger scheme of things though, that was their second successive home defeat to Chiefs, who had also hammered them 4-1 to register their first win last season.
Mthembu, however, remains adamant they’ll be ready for the upcoming task as they look to redeem their cup pedigree, with the Telkom Knockout being the first trophy they won in their first season of establishment.
“Tough matches are made for tough guys, and I think that we are ready for this match,” he said.
“This is the game that we were looking forward to. The more tough games that we play earlier, the better are the chances of winning the cup.”