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| Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy (Copyright Steve Haag Sport ) |
Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy says Kaizer Chiefs didn’t deserve to win 2-1 in Tuesday’s Premiership clash at Newlands Stadium.
City were dominant in the first half and took an early lead through Kermit Erasmus. However, Chiefs’ coach Ernst Middendorp made a key change at the break as he brought on Kearyn Baccus for Lazarous Kambole.
The Glamour Boys dominated the second stanza and it led to goals from Daniel Cardoso and Baccus as the outfit from Naturena collected all three points.
Nonetheless, McCarthy takes the view that Chiefs were fortunate on the night. He told SuperSport TV: “It was a game of two halves.
“What our players don’t want to seem to understand is how football works. When you play the so-called bigger teams, when you do what we did in the first half. We outplayed them. There was one team on the pitch. No disrespect to Chiefs. We were fantastic the way we moved the ball. The way we built up and switched play from side to side.
“When you create the chances that you do and you don’t take them and don’t punish the better teams in this league you’re going to end up ruing your opportunities and that’s exactly what happened to us.
“First half I was satisfied. I told them not to get complacent or to get too over-confident because we showed the football we planned to play. Second half credit to coach Middendorp. He moved things around, he changed his tactics, he brought in Baccus and took out Kambole. It looked like the game turned on its head and we just sat back.
“We weren’t adventurous and we stopped playing our football and the players knew exactly what they were supposed to do. But we just couldn’t get hold of the ball. We couldn’t move the ball and I think Chiefs just kept getting stronger and stronger.
“When you are sloppy and naive the way we were second half, you’re going to get punished. The boys are holding their head in their hands but it’s of their own doing. They should have been a bit more intelligent because you can’t let a team like this off the hook and now we missed our chances.
“Credit to Chiefs. They got to score two goals and take three points – undeservedly – but that’s football.”