Despite the 4-3 penalty shoot-out defeat against DRC side AS Vita over the weekend, Kaizer Chiefs coach Ted Dumitru said he was happy with the performance of the squad and progress made by his new recruits.

“Preparations for the new season are going very well,” said Dumitru. “We have been doing a lot on match-related endurance work trying to integrate the new players. Even without being match fit, I think we did extremely very well against the DRC teams. If you look at the difference between the teams from Congo and us and Pirates we were just walking at the time.”

Last season Chiefs had a comprehensive off-season programme, which included a trip to South Korea where they featured in the Peace Cup. And that proved vital, as Amakhosi went all the way to win the league championship, their first in 11 years.

“Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to play international friendlies this year. That was quite a serious handicap. I think it was better not to have friendlies and rather help the players to recover after a hectic marathon season,” Dumitru said.

The Vodacom Challenge was supposed to serve that purpose but the team looked mentally exhausted and dished out a performance they would not be proud of.

“We didn’t pay extensive attention to the Vodacom Challenge as far as the results are concerned. More importantly was to make the players happy and to refresh their minds. Yes we could have won it but we dropped the commitment in the last five minutes and we paid penalty for that,” Dumitru said.

“We are very happy with the new players. I think some of them are going to create some waves in the PSL but I am not going to talk too much about that,” he said.

About the need to get a top class striker and media speculation that Zimbabwean international and Sheffield United star Peter Ndlovu was to join the Naturena outfit, Dumitru was non-committal but emphasised the need to reinforce his striking department.

“Absolutely, there is a need to get another striker,” said Dumitru. “It is difficult to get quality at this stage because the legs at this stage are heavily loaded. The only thing you look for is running and anything else we are not concerned at all.

“The striking department is still going to be reinforced. It’s probably a matter of days before we solve that problem. We tried to come up with some surprises during the Vodacom Challenge but we were let down by some other people,” said Dumitru.

The departure of Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Brian Baloyi to rival Sundowns created a vacancy and Chiefs have been in the market to find a replacement. With the club going into Africa for the Champions League coupled with domestic commitments, two keepers, Rowen Fernandez and Tladi Mathibe, may not be sufficient.

“We are also in the transfer market looking for a third goalkeeper and the announcement will be made in a matter of days,” said Dumitru.

Regarding Zambian striker Collins Mbesuma, who has not returned to the club after playing for his country in a World Cup qualifier against Senegal over two weeks ago: “When he comes back he will be looked up in a cell,” said Dumitru jokingly. “But seriously though, this problem is receiving our attention.”