CAPE TOWN – Benni McCarthy feels there’s no better time than now for Cape Town City to play Kaizer Chiefs, especially after the way his troops performed last time out away to Premier League champions Mamelodi Sundowns in a 1-1 draw.
“It was very promising, there was a lot of good stuff, a lot of positives from the game against the Brazilians last Tuesday and a lot to build on from there,” said McCarthy.
“Now we are at home playing at Newlands Stadium (7.30pm kick-off) and we want to put one right here at this stadium because the last performance on this pitch we put in one of our worst performances. We’ve prepared well for the Amakhozi so hopefully the job is done and the players can just go out there and play the way we know they can play.”
McCarthy is always encouraging his players to take a shot at goal, so it is unsurprising to see four of them scoring a goal each in the three league games played so far.
Central defender Edmilson Dove is the latest to hit the back of the net getting the all-important goal to earn City a 1-1 away draw at Sundowns in his 50th league appearance (two goals).
Keano Cupido (defender) and Kermit Erasmus (striker) scored for the Citizens in their season-opening 2-2 draw at Baroka FC before forward Chris David supplied the only goal in the derby win over Stellenbosch FC.
𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘊𝘏𝘋𝘈𝘠 👊🤩
We invite you to join us as we take on Kaizer Chiefs tonight 💯
🏟️ DHL Newlands Stadium #iamCityFC💙 pic.twitter.com/UGTABOAMz1
— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC) August 27, 2019
Dove said this about his goal to keep City unbeaten: “Firstly, our structure is always to build from the back, to connect with the midfielders and the front guys, so I try to make myself available to get the ball and connect with them every time I can. Things panned out that way. At the moment I saw Thato (Mokeke) in the midfield going towards the ball I had to support him, and I shouted so bad for him to see me and pass me the ball.
When I took a touch and got the ball controlled, my first thought was having a strike which our coach always encourages us to do. I took my chance and hoped something good would happen which it did luckily.”
The Mozambican international, wants to play a role in flooring Chiefs.
The Glamour Boys come to Newlands unbeaten and at the top of the standings on seven points. City are in sixth place but a victory would see the Citizens rise to first place on eight points.
“It’s yet another massive game for us,” said Dove, who is one of the more consistent foreign players plying their trade in the league. “We will try and built on our performance against Sundowns, we all know it’s going be a hard task but not impossible.
We will work on whatever we can to better ourselves in training and transfer it to the match against Chiefs.”