The defence has been sorted, but Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler is not happy with his team’s attack despite a 2-0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic in the Telkom Knockout.
Even though they dominated for large parts of the regulation 90 minutes on Wednesday night at Cape Town Stadium, City battled to finish off their opportunities as the last pass often let them down, while their attempts on goal rarely troubled Celtic goalkeeper Patrick Tignyemb.
Perhaps playing just a lone striker in Judas Moseamedi is part of the problem, as he is often isolated upfront. Captain Lebogang Manyama operates just behind Moseamedi, but is a more creative player who would find those gaps if he had two strikers to work with ahead of him.
City’s attacking formation appeared a bit disjointed, with two left wingers in Aubrey Ngoma and Matt Sim operating on opposite flanks, with Ngoma not as effective on the right as he usually is with his left foot.
The illness-enforced absence of Lehlohonolo Majoro maybe played a part in Tinkler picking only one striker, but he also opted to keep the speedy Bhongolethu Jayiya and eventual goal-scorer Sibusiso Masina on the bench on Wednesday night – either of them could’ve been an ideal foil for Moseamedi.
A midfield of Ngoma on the left wing, with Sim and Manyama in the middle and Jayiya on the right, with Majoro and Moseamedi upfront would present a number of attacking options for City going forward.
But the return of the experienced Robyn Johannes was just what the backline needed as he produced an outstanding display alongside Man-of-the-Match Tshepo Gumede in central defence.
City only scored in extra time, with Masina’s cool finish putting them 1-0 ahead and an own goal from Celtic’s Kabelo Mahlasela two minutes later settled the outcome.
“It’s that final third that’s been our problem of late. And in the first 90 minutes, it was a bit of the same really – it was only really in that second period of extra time that the spaces started to open and we caught them on the counter and go the goals. But that was also because of tired legs,” Tinkler told SuperSport in a TV interview afterwards.
“Before that, we really struggled to break them down. I thought defensively, we were good tonight, which was extremely important. That’s been our weakness over the last couple of games – defensively, we’ve been conceding very cheap goals. They’re very dangerous on the break and have a lot of speed and power going forward, and I thought we dealt with it very well.
“Over the 90 minutes, not entirely impressed. I don’t think we created enough, but we need to work on that. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, but happy to get through to the next round.”
Gumede added that the defensive stability ensured that City remained in the contest. “I’m tired as hell! But I’d say we made it tough for ourselves. We played in patches, but then again, we kept a clean sheet and as long as we don’t let them score, we always had a chance of scoring.”
Tinkler added: “I thought the tackle on Roland Putsche deserved a bit more than what the (Celtic) player (Alfred Ndengane) got (just conceded a free kick). We had to send him to hospital and we are not sure, but we think there’s a break there. And losing him so early in the game forced us to make a change, and I knew it was going to be tough because of the seven changes I made, none of them have really played 90 minutes.
“We started to see (Thamsanqa) Mkhize cramping, I thought Robyn was fantastic and I expected him to start cramping, but he didn’t. The boys worked hard and stuck at it, and we got the result at the end of the day.”
Apart from Putsche, goalkeeper Shuaib Walters was also struggling with a groin injury, but he will have 10 days to recover before City’s next match against defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the Premiership on October 30 at Loftus Versfeld.
Ajax Cape Town will be in action in the Telkom Knockout on Saturday night when they take on SuperSport United in Atteridgeville (8.15pm kickoff).
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