Former Bafana Bafana defenders Nasief Morris and Bongani Khumalo have offered their assessment of Aden McCarthy’s UEFA Champions League debut for Azerbaijani side Sabah FK on Thursday night.
The Kaizer Chiefs academy graduate played the full 90 minutes as Sabah suffered a 4-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford in their first-ever Champions League appearance.
Despite the heavy scoreline, both former South Africa internationals believe the 22-year-old defender showed promising signs on Europe’s biggest stage.
NASIEF MORRIS: ‘HE HAD A DECENT GAME’
Analysing the match on SuperSport TV, Morris praised McCarthy’s individual display, noting that the majority of the Red Devils’ goals originated away from his zone.
“If you look at Aden’s performance, I think he started the game well. He was aggressive and made good tackles. Also, if we look at most of the goals that came in, they came from the opposite side of where Aden was playing,” Morris said.
“Even the third goal, it was his teammate who actually put Benjamin Šeško in that situation to score. But if you look at Aden’s overall performance, I think he had a decent game, even though the result says something different.
“This is an opportunity for him to gain experience. It’s his first Champions League game, and this is football. He will learn from this and grow as he goes along. There are still a couple of games to play against tougher opponents, and that’s going to be the challenge to see if he has the character, determination, and quality to step up to a higher level.”
BONGANI KHUMALO: ‘HE DID NOT LET HIMSELF DOWN’
Khumalo echoed Morris’ sentiments, highlighting the valuable experience the young defender will take into his European career.
“He did not let himself down,” Khumalo added. “Fresh from playing in South Africa and being around some of the best players in the world at one of the greatest arenas [Old Trafford], that’s a beautiful place to start in terms of confidence, yet the result may hurt.
“As a defender, you don’t like conceding goals. But the amount of data he would have collected in terms of experience—what the level is like, how top strikers think and move, and the instinct of being in the right place at the right time—going forward in his career in Europe, I think that will do him good.
“We need to remember that sometimes we get stuck on how well we did in a single game, but in a career, you look at seasons. If this is a fresh start from playing in South Africa, you can only imagine what’s yet to come.”
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