adminJOHANNESBURG. – Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane believes his team are still on the ‘right track’ despite suffering defeat in their opening DStv Premiership clash.
The Amakhosi, who have Khama Billiat on their books, went down 0-1 courtesy of a strike by Ricardo Nascimento.
“I think we started very slow, we gave them a goal that they did not deserve, you could see the first minute they got a corner, from that corner because of lapse in concentration we conceded,” Zwane said on SuperSport TV.
“But I think from then on it was more like a wake-up call, we created I don’t know how many one v ones in terms of goal-scoring opportunities.
“I mean if the goalkeeper is the Man of the Match that alone tells you that he’s the one who saved them.
“I think second-half we did not create enough chances in terms of being clinical.
“The energy levels dropped but we kept that composure in the middle though I believe we could have done better in some instances where we should have gone to collect the ball, be ‘half ten’, so we can be able to see the runners going forward but we opted to control the ball facing our own goals and allowed them to regroup,” he said.
“But it’s our first game and I think we’re on the right track. I’m proud of the boys’ effort. I think they gave their all today, unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”
Zwane gave the reasons behind his substitutions in the second stanza after Nkosingiphile Ngcobo replaced Cole Alexander and Dillan Solomons came on for Njabulo Blom.
“I think we have a very balanced team, obviously when we took out Blom we needed now to take the game to them on the other side, where Solomons would go on those one v ones, take them on, bring on crosses,” he went on.
“Again I think negative controlling of the ball by [Siyethemba] Sithebe, unfortunately he was coming from an awkward angle, where he could not even control the ball and see the keeper.
“But those are the moments I think we could have done better.
“I told the boys and said ‘many teams are going to do that against us’, the way we’re going to exert ourselves, we’ll force the teams to defend with numbers.
“And if you can check the second-half as well we were on their half, they couldn’t come out except when waiting for those break attacks.
“But I think the boys did very well and we can learn from this game, we’ll try to rectify our mistakes but we’re getting somewhere.” – KickOff
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter