Amakhosi goalkeeper coach Rainer Dinkelacker holds the opinion that Itumeleng Khune is beginning to realize just how important it is for him Chiefs number one stopper to consistently produce his best form, as Khune demonstrated on Sunday when Chiefs defeated Moroka Swallows in the Soweto derby that he is vital to Chiefs successes in the next few seasons. During the 3-1 win over Swallows Khune was voted as the man of the match and came up with some important saves particularly in the second half of the match, when the scores were tied at 1-1 and Dinkelacker believes these stops were key in eventually helping Chiefs win the match.

Big savings

Khune produced two world class saves in that second half against Swallows the first off a shot from distance, when Lefa Tsutsulupa let fly from around 20 yards from goal and the second saw him race out to stop James Chamanga in a dangerous one on one situation. Speaking of his performance Dinkelacker said “Itumeleng must realize after this game on Sunday that if he is making the saves at the one end it will motivate the guys at the other end to go and score goals. That is exactly what happened he came up with two match defining saves and we went on to score two goals after that, he knows that he is an important key to motivating the rest of the team”.

Adaptation

Another part of Khune’s game that has improved according to Dinkelacker is the young keepers ability to research his opposition and adapt quickly to a match situation, and the Chiefs goalkeeper coach believes this has come to the fore in the past couple of games. Dinkelacker said of this “before the Swallows match Itumeleng realized that their strikers were physically big and would give him a tough time, so whenever the ball came his way he did not try and bring it under control. Instead he went to get rid of it immediately because both James Chamanga and Sandile Ndlovu will fight for the ball and on a physical basis he would not be able to take them on”.