Cape Town – AN unidentified person on the Moroka Swallows bench on Wednesday night chirped that he hopes new Chippa United coach Mark Harrison is only renting ...
Being the sixth coach of the Chilli Boys in their maiden season in the top flight is rather amusing for most people in South African football. And he has been widely tipped to go down with the team to the National First Division, or even get fired before that.
I don’t think Harrison heard the chirp, but of course, we all know he had the last laugh after his team beat the Birds 2-1 at Philippi Stadium on Wednesday night. And you have to think the result means that he will indeed see out the season in charge of the team.
Harrison became only the fourth Chippa coach to record a victory this season, and if he gets one more, then he will be the only one with two wins.
His task to save them from the drop is a massive one, as the team need to overturn a four-point gap to give them a chance of at least making the playoffs.
But it seems Harrison has taken a few pointers from Chippa’s most successful coach to date this season, Farouk Abrahams.
For Abrahams, it was all about the fight and desire, and not what the team looked like in attack. He was largely successful with this approach, but unfortunately for Abrahams, the boss Chippa Mpengesi wanted to see champagne football.
But like we have seen time and time again this season, Chippa are just not equipped to play that sort of football. They really look at their best when they are fighting for every ball and putting their bodies on the line.
Chippa will never be able to break a good team down in midfield. And as was the case against Swallows, set pieces are their biggest weapon, as they have scored many goals from corners and free kicks this season.
Trying to play football against the likes of Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns is suicidal, because they have the best ball players in the country, and you will never be able to compete with that.
Abrahams played the percentages against these two teams and managed to get points off them.
While Chippa showed glimpses of their attacking ability against Swallows on Wednesday, they still aren’t able to put away their chances from open play.
Chippa are never going to be Barcelona, and if Mpengesi realised that sooner, he might have saved a lot of money in payouts. Hopefully Harrison doesn’t fall into that trap by trying to please the owner with fancy football, because that is not going to save the team from the dreaded drop.
The only way Chippa are going to be safe at the end of the season is if they put their bodies on the line and take the few chances they are going to get over the next five matches.
It’s time to get stuck in Chippa, your survival depends on it.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@markfish74 (some inspiration from the former Bafana Bafana defender): A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t!!!
@carlosdn21 (Carlos das Neves hitting the nail on the head after Ajax’s loss to Leopards): Surprised Ajax lost last night, that was a massive six pointer.
@de4no22 (Dean Furman horrified by the Boston bombing): Thoughts and prayers are with the people of Boston right now. Horrified by these awful and tragic scenes... Why??!!
WHO TO FOLLOW
@Jan_Versleijen: The Ajax Cape Town coach has been quiet on Twitter of late. Give him and the team some encouragement in the run-in towards the end of the season.
*Follow John Goliath on Twitter: @JohnGoliath82
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