Reacting to midfielder Njabulo Blom’s error that resulted in Stellenbosch’s goal in their 3-1 league win at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday, Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane narrated why he expects their defensive blunders to persist.
Blom was the fourth Chiefs player to make a blunder that led to conceding this season, following almost similar errors by Siyabonga Ngezana, Njabulo Ngcobo and Zitha Kwinika in the past games.
“For the fact that we are building this team, yes we are going to make these costly mistakes. We don’t like to give the ball away cheaply. Keeping the ball comes with a risk of losing it, so the mistakes are likely to happen. We will, however, continue to work on it until we get it right,” Zwane said.
“Nearly all the goals that we have conceded this season, we gave them away… the opposition never worked hard but we just gave them goals on a silver platter. Again, I think this [defensive errors] tests our character because when you look at most of these games where we give away goals we came back to draw or even win.”
After Nhlanhla Mgaga had put Stellies ahead, benefitting from Blom’s howler, Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana scored three penalties to seal the deal for Amakhosi. The Burundian striker’s rare hat-trick is likely to only be the second of its kind in the history of football after Brazilians’ Ronaldo also managed to convert three spot-kicks in one game when they beat Argentina 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier back in 2004.
More than anything, Zwane was pleased with the fact that they came from a goal down in the Mother City, where Stellies skipper Mogamad de Goede was sent off in the 55th minute for a foul on Bimenyimana inside the box.
“I must commend the character of these boys for coming back because it’s never easy to come from a goal down and win against a team like Stellenbosch. We dictated terms and made their life a little bit difficult. We made them look too predictable today, forcing them to make mistakes that led to the penalties,” Zwane said.
Chiefs next host Chippa United at Moses Mabhida Stadium this weekend.
