Conceding goals unlike Chiefs: Masilela
Absa Premiership defending Champions Kaizer Chiefs must win their upcoming game at home to Maritzburg United if they are to get their league campaign back on track.
The Amakhosi have gone three games without a win in all competitions with their last league match ending in a 3-1 defeat to log leaders SuperSport United.
A loss for Chiefs at home to the coastal team could spell disaster to their already erratic start to the new season. The two teams meet at the FNB Stadium on Saturday. They drew both of their league matches last season.
Although it's still early days in the PSL, The Phefeni Glamour Boys are five points adrift of log leaders SuperSport. Stuart Baxter's men are without a win in three matches, a far cry from the side that won the championship last season.
Baxter says people shouldn’t write them off yet as he has been in a far worse situation before and went to win the league in his time in Sweden.
“Obviously our start hasn’t been that great when you compare it to last season,” he started.
“When I won the league with Allmänna Idrottsklubben in Sweden, we were third from bottom after 8 games and everyone started writing us off but we went on a 13-game winning streak without conceding a goal and ended up winning the league.”
Kaizer Chiefs players gearing up for the Maritzburg United game
The International Fifa break has not made things easy for Chiefs with half their players reported for national duty to their respective countries and Englishman says it’s a challenge he must live with.
He said: “It’s difficult when players go away and come back four days before a match. It doesn’t give me much time to prepare the team but it’s a challenge of coaching a top team.”
“It’s good challenge to have because I want my players to represent their countries.”
Players in a circle
Bafana Bafana and Chiefs defender Tshepo Masilela conceded the fact that the team from Durban have been their hoodoo side in recent seasons.
“I admit that Maritzburg have been our hoodoo team in the past. They make it difficult for us to play because they sit behind the ball and wait for us to come at them while they play on the counter,” he said.
“We will be ready for them if they do that.”
The 3-1 loss to Matsatsantsa a Pitori is something Masilela says his team need to fix in order to get their season going.
“We conceded 3 goals against SuperSport and that’s unlike us. Last season we didn’t concede that much and we scored goals going forward. If we can repeat that then we will be fine.”
The players walking off the training ground
- Jacasport