Posted in News on Oct 12, 2015.
Amakhosi lost 1-0 to Bloemfontein Celtic in the Macufe Cup yesterday.
“Previously, Chiefs would use a mixture of first team players and youngsters from the development side for the Macufe Cup,” says Komphela. “However, this time around we also had the MultiChoice Diski Challenge on Saturday, which meant that no players from the reserve team could participate in the Celtic game. Despite this, it was a fruitful exercise as we gave an opportunity to play guys who hadn’t featured much this season when it comes to the first team.”
Chiefs’ reserves side was beaten 3-1 by Polokwane City.
Komphela evaluates: “We did well on both fronts even though in football we often like to focus too much on results and less on the progress being made, when it comes to developing players or working towards a certain formation. In terms of progress, we are fine, but when it comes to results we could have done better last weekend.”
Also, three Amakhosi players are presently on national team duty.
“One of our players called up for Bafana Bafana is Itu (Itumeleng Khune),” comments Komphela. “He didn’t play in the last two official games, due to injury. We would have liked to have played him in the Macufe Cup, but national team duty called.”
“There are some injuries too,” adds the Chiefs coach. “For example, Levy (Mokgothu) has done well in the MDC matches. However, we could not take him to Bloemfontein, because he has a hamstring problem.”
On the positive side, Morgan Gould returned from injury, playing for 90 minutes against Celtic.
“That was a big plus,” concludes Komphela, “to see Morgan play the full game. As a result of this, we now have more options in the centre of defence, with Morgan partnering Siyanda Xulu on Sunday.”
Amakhosi host Mpumalanga Black Aces at FNB Stadium in an Absa Premiership fixture on Saturday, 17 October (kick-off is at 20:15).
Tickets are sold at Computicket for R40 adults and R10 for children U12. We urge the fans to buy the parking tickets at a cost of R20.