Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane’s reaction after the AmaZulu heavily defeat was that of a man in denial of what he witnessed at the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Friday evening.
Although Zwane admitted it was a ‘night to forget’, he claimed that his men controlled the game despite an embarrassing 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Usuthu in a DStv Premiership encounter.
To add salt to the injury, former Chiefs players, now playing for AmaZulu, played a vital role to ensure their side get maximum at home. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Amakhosi as they deemed the duo surplus to requirements.
Dumisani Zuma and Ramahlwe Mphahlele, who were released at the end of last season, scored for AmaZulu with George Maluleka providing the assist for both goals.
Ivorian striker Junior Dion netted the third goal before substitute Bongi Ntuli completed the rout in the 90th minute.
With AmaZulu 1-0 up, Chiefs were awarded a penalty, but they failed to convert. Coach Zwane says it would have been a different story had his striker Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana scored from the spot.
ARTHUR ZWANE CLAIMS CHIEFS DOMINATED THE GAME
“If you look at the game we played last week [against Sekhukhune] and the way we played tonight, I think we put them on the back foot early in the game,” Zwane told SuperSport TV.
“But our decision-making in the final third was very poor. Then we conceded and just after conceding from a dead ball situation, I believe we could have defended better.
“Then we got a penalty and had we converted that penalty, it would have been a different ball game altogether. But after that, again, we conceded from a dead ball situation, then the mistake. And unfortunately, whenever we made mistakes, we got punished.”
Zwane bemoaned his troops’ poor finishing, insisting they have themselves to blame for dropping points once again as Amakhosi had suffered a 1-0 defeat against Sekhukhune prior to the AmaZulu game.
It was Chiefs’ sixth defeat of the season in 16 league matches. They remain in fourth place on the log standings with 24 points,16 adrift of leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
ZWANE ON CHIEFS’ FAILURE TO PUNISH AMAZULU
“When the opposition committed mistakes, we didn’t take our chances. We failed, so it was one of those nights that I would like to forget more especially for the players because they tried their level best several times,” added Zwane.
“Mshini [Nkosingiphile Ngcobo], [Wandile] Duba should have scored and I believe [Edmilson] Dove as well so it wasn’t our night.
“But the performance wasn’t that bad to be quite honest. We were in control of the game, obviously now we were chasing the game. We lost a little bit of our structure, but we still looked like scoring at any given time.
“We knew they would just sit back and invite us to come and catch us on a counterattack. So we can learn from the game but we learned the hard way.
“We opened them up but poor decision making in the final third let us down. But it is something that we will continue to work on until we get it right.”
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