One thought kept on running through my mind over and over again after our loss to Jomo Cosmos on Sunday and that was how we could lose a game which we dominated for long periods of time, and a game where we had the better and clearer cut opportunities.

Overall during Sunday’s game I think Cosmos had around four clear goal scoring opportunities, and they managed to score two of them which in the end of the day won them the game. On the other hand we had double the chances they created in the entire match in the first half alone and apart from Ditheko Mototo’s goal; we generally squandered a number of easy goal scoring opportunities.

I further felt that against Cosmos we did not really keep our eye on the ball in the defence, in the first half there were two occasions when they managed to catch us flat footed at the back, we had to back paddle and managed to stop the attack. Should one closely examine the opponent’s first goal you will see that we virtually left Plaatjies the Cosmos goal scorer unattended to, and he was able to run into the box and head the ball home.

We needed to be more vigilant and should have kept him under check and should have noticed his run into the box, instead he was able to follow the ball and all credit to him for heading the ball home when the opportunity presented itself.

Credit must also go to the guys, who once Cosmos scored, continued attacking and we came right back into the game. Cyril thought the quickest when the goalkeeper spilled Siyabonga Nkosi’s cross. Cyril used his initiative and headed the ball goal wards and some quick thinking from Ditheko Mototo got the ball over the line, soon after we got the equalizer.

Patrick Mayo had the opportunity to have given us the lead instead he dragged the ball wide from close range, after finding himself in a good goal scoring position. He had the perfect opportunity to have put us 2-1 in front, and had we had scored at that stage of the game the game would have been ours to lose.

Instead of putting home the opportunities that fell our way we found ourselves going into halftime a goal down, again we were caught on the counterattack and had to pay the price. Could we have prevented Cosmos from scoring a second goal I think we could have, that is football if you do not make your opportunities count and the opposition score theirs you are going to be up against it. We had a number of scoring opportunities in the second half like we did in the first; there were opportunities for us to have gotten a draw.

Siyabonga Nkosi was unfortunate when he was unable to find the back of the net inside the last ten minutes of the game, perhaps he should have picked an angle instead of knocking his shot down the middle.

Another consequence of our failure to win on Sunday means that we missed out on the opportunity to ascend to the top of the table, a number of the title contenders such as Silver Stars, Bidvest Wits, Bloemfontein Celtic and SuperSport United dropped points on Sunday.

It was up to us to make the most of the slip ups of other teams, unfortunately we were unable to seize the initiative and we remain in third spot which is not where we were aiming to be at the close of play on Sunday. We have the week to prepare for our next game this Saturday against Ajax Cape Town, there can be no slip up’s this coming weekend and it is imperative for us to keep up our title challenge by gaining a victory over Ajax.

Till later keep up the support

Ernst Middendorp


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach