Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says he was not surprised by the way Chippa United approached their match as he always anticipates teams to apply a very low block against Sundowns, including big teams like Kaizer Chiefs.
Peter Shalulile’s late volley secured Sundowns a dramatic 1-0 victory over Chippa at at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday evening and move to the top of the DStv Premiership.
“We expected a very tough match,” Mngqithi said.
“To be honest I think it was a very strong performance from Chippa with their low block and also very good transitional moments which nearly caused problems for us, and that is expected honestly. Our rest defense is not in the right space and we would always be caught, but otherwise I think it was an interesting match for spectators, but not so interesting for us as coaches because we believe that from the number of chances and the work that we’ve done, we should’ve had at least more than one goal. We should’ve probably scored earlier than finding ourselves in a situation where we had to dig very deep to find the result.”
“It’s what we always anticipate that we are going to have more than 80% of matches played with a very low block, and this is what’s been happening throughout the seasons and sometimes even some of the big teams resort to this strategy against us.”
“We are always preparing our team for that and we do create the opportunities that we want to create because our wish always is to break the game down very early, which is what I think is what happened in our game against Kaizer Chiefs whereby very early in the game we’ve already put them on the sword and now they must come out. But if you don’t score those early chances that you get – if you bury one of those chances then the game changes its complexion and it becomes very difficult for the team that had planned to sit back when they now have to open out and come to you.”
“And that is why it becomes easier that when you score you may end up scoring a lot of goals because now the strategy that was being prepared throughout the week was always to sit back and make life difficult, but that type of a game requires a lot of courage and character from our team and a lot of patience not to always look for that final pass. I think the second half was a little bit better with an extra touch and an extra pass to try and find openings and frustrate the opposition because the ball is always moving and I think we did that very well, but unfortunately when you’re not scoring the game looks like it’s very difficult.”
