Posted in News on Sep 27, 2007.
While the weather has been unable to cloud the Chiefs coaches plans, he has suffered one set back for Saturday evenings game, that being the suspension of striker Mabhudi Khenyeza. Khenyeza collected his third yellow card of the season during The Amakhosi’s 1-0 loss to Ajax Cape Town on Saturday, which means that he will have to sit out the Swallows encounter, the Chiefs coach believes that his striker was unfairly punished by the match official when he was booked.
Khenyeza went down in the Ajax 18 yard area in the 80th minute of the game and had what looked like a legitimate penalty appeal turned down, instead of being awarded a justified spot kick Khenyeza’s name went into the book as the referee said he had dived and was not brought down.
Khenyeza disappointment
Mabhudi Khenyeza spoke to Kaizerchiefs.com of his disappointment of not being able to play in Saturday’s derby against the Birds as he was hoping to use the game to work his way back to form, as he added.
“I will put my head on the block here and say that I have not performed up to the standard that I would have liked to and that playing against Swallows would have been the perfect opportunity for me to have found a goal or two which would have been good for my confidence and my game over all”. One of the Chief motivating factors behind his move from Golden Arrows to the Amakhosi in the off season was so that he could be part of a team that is regularly in the reckoning for cups and league titles.
As he explained “I want to help the team be successful in every competition that we participate in and starting out in a cup competition by scoring a goal in the opening round would have help set a tone for the rest of the tournament, anyway all I can now do is lend my support to the guys and I know that they will soar above the birds and fly into the quarterfinals”.
Preparations on track Ertugral
Muhsin Ertugral told kaizerchiefs.com on Thursday morning that going into such an important cup game without a key player like Khenyeza is a major setback, “Missing Mabhudi means that our options up front will be limited, these things happen in football and you have to make contingency plans to deal with suspensions and injuries.”
Although he has suffered a setback with the Mabhudi’s absence through suspension, the Chiefs' coach is upbeat about his teams chances of progressing to the quarterfinals adding, “Up to this point I cannot fault the players at all for the way things have gone. Each guy has put his all into training and the guys have been working very hard, our preparations for the Swallows game could not have been better. The spirit amongst the group is very good and there is this desire with in the group that every one wants to be successful, not as individuals but as a collective”.
