CLASH OF THE DESPERADOS
THERE will be no love lost at Harry Gwala Stadium tomorrow as both Maritzburg United and Kaizer Chiefs desperately search for that first elusive Absa Premiership victory (kickoff 8pm).
The Team of Choice fired blanks in two league outings. They stumbled against Lamontville Golden Arrows in their opening fixture and Free State Stars got the better of them at Goble Park.
Amakhosi are in a similar situation. Chiefs drew 1-1 against Mamelodi Sundowns and Baroka, and lost 3-1 to Bidvest Wits.
United captain, Siyanda Xulu, is targeting a turnaround against Amakhosi. United crashed out of the MTN8 last weekend, but Xulu explained, “The success that we achieved last season was based on team work and we need to turn things around as a team. We always want to turn things around. We have to take our chances and things will come okay for us. We are not in crisis.”
Xulu and Keagan Buchanan will be determined to get one over Amakhosi. They struggled to command regular action at Chiefs and joined United. Buchanan joined United this season, and it will be the first time he faces his former employers.
Xulu said: “We have to pick ourselves up and fight for one another. We are experiencing a common problem of missing our chances but we miss them as a team. Last season we did well as a team and we will fight this problem as a team.”
United have been hit by the departure of two players who were key to their accomplishments last season. Lebohang Maboe joined Mamelodi Sundowns and Bevan “WE CAN’T get away from the fact that the batting was frustrating.” Ottis Gibson played a straight bat to his South African team’s single biggest problem in Sri Lanka.
Almost all of their problems stemmed from an inability to put together decent totals.
“We look at the way we played in the first three games of the series. Our focus for the last six or eight months has been trying to get ready for the World Cup, so we sat down and spoke about the style of play that we wanted,” the Proteas coach explained.
“We talked about having positive intent and taking the game on, but within that also comes player thinking and today I questioned our thinking,” he said of the T20 loss in Colombo.
“We want to be positive but you still want to make good decisions. The teams that make the best decisions under pressure are the ones that perform the best, and the decision-making of some of our players was questionable.”
There was also an Fransman is at Highlands Park.
Also, Fortune Makaringe is suspended after receiving a red card against Free State Stars, and Andrea Fileccia has been struggling with a hamstring injury.
“Yes, we’ve lost some of our key players but there’s no use worrying about players that will not come back. We’ve lost players before. We lost Evans Rusike (in January) but we still played well,” Xulu said.
Benni McCarthy has been vocal about looking forward to this season. With one year under the belt as Cape Town City head coach, he believes the experience gained will place him in good stead for the campaign ahead.
City host Golden Arrows in a PSL fixture at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 6pm) – but, looking back at a hectic opening period, McCarthy will certainly feel he has negotiated the choppy waters rather well.
With everything looking rosy after an opening day 2-0 win over SuperSport United, the challenges came thick and fast. Injuries to Edmilson‚ Kwanda Mngonyama, Ebrahim Seedat and Teko Modise had McCarthy scratching his head to find solutions. With no left-back available, he shifted new centre-back Kouassi Kouadja to the left side of defence and brought in inexperienced 20-yearold Keanu Cupido.
The changes unsettled the team in the next game at Baroka FC, and City lost.
It was then on to the MTN8 quarter-finals at the weekend, away to Maritzburg United. Again, there were problems for McCarthy, this time with some really brutal tackling from the opposition. Captain Thamsanqa Mkhize was rushed to hospital after a clash of heads, while striker Siphelele Mthembu was stretchered off after a crude challenge. official silverware. The sooner he delivers that maiden league win, the easier he will sit in one of the country’s hottest coaching seats. And the match against Maritzburg But McCarthy’s men dug and emerged victorious.
McCarthy was relieved to see off a tough opening few days. Now he wants the team to play with the rhythm they produced against SuperSport.
“Last week was a tough week for us,” said McCarthy. “It’s never easy playing three matches in the space of eight days, but the boys have really put their heads down and soldiered through it.
“We now face a Golden Arrows side that played well in their first match and were unlucky in their second match against Bloem Celtic. We obviously come off a tough win over Maritzburg in the MTN8, which was a morale booster for us after such a difficult trip to Baroka. We are back at home and that’s something that always favours us. It’s another match where we can’t afford to drop points; we expect a good performance and three more points.” could be just what he needs given the Team of Choice’s poor start to the season.
But Maritzburg coach Fadlu Davids was at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday and he’d have spotted weaknesses in Chiefs’ play that he will hope to exploit tomorrow.
With Solinas loath to rotate his team, Davids might just know exactly what he will be up against.