Polokwane City coach revealed why he started bafana star on bench
2 min read
Rise and Shine coach Phuti Mohafe revealed his decision to start Bafana Bafana star Oswin Appollis off the bench against Mamelodi Sundowns state that it was tactical, emphasize it had nothing to do with his impending transfer.
Appollis is set to join an unnamed Algeria side in the next coming days and was introduced with Mokibelo Ramabu in the 58th minute during their 1-0 MTN8 defeat in quarterfinal against Sundowns at Lucas “Master-peaces” Moripe Stadium on Sunday.
Polokwane City knocked-out after Thabang Matuludi scored own goal 12 minutes into extra time and saw 10-man Sundowns progress to next round. Bafana ba Style keeper Denis Onyango recieved red card for making a save outside the box in the 82nd minute.
After the match Polokwane City coach Phuti Mohafe highlighted that each and every team in Premier Soccer League(PSL) they approach games with a different mindset.
Mohafe said “This Appollis issue is now becoming a big issue for me. Every team has its ways of doing things and with Oswin, there’s no difference with regards to how we want to do things. The decision was about tactical aspects of the match… of how we wanted to counteract what Sundowns were about to give.”
Even though they lost the match, Polokwane City coach blamed the lack of composure from his troops and revealed that “they beat themselves”.
Mohafe said “I think we started slowly. What summed up the match I think are the chances that we missed and their chances in the first 15 minutes… they missed out on three or four clear-cut chances that came through our sloppiness. After those chances, we grew into the match and started to play our normal football.
“However, we were not able to rotate the ball quicker, hence they pressed us in the wrong areas. Going into halftime 0-0 was good enough for us. We had transition phases where we should have scored two or three goals. I think had we been composed and patient, we should have scored one or two goals. We were unfortunate to score that goal for them… they didn’t score, we’ve beaten ourselves.”
After Sunday’s fixture between Sundowns and Polokwane City the MTN8 conducted the draw for the semi finals.
Semi final number 1 will be between Mamelodi Sundowns vs Stellenbosch while Semi final number 2 will be between Cape Town City vs Orlando Pirates. With venues and time yet to be confirmed.
BY LUCKY SEANEGO
