Kaizer Chiefs coach Fernando da Cruz says the club must stop dropping points to stay abreast with the early pace setters this season. Chiefs come up against Stellenbosch FC in a Betway Premiership encounter at the FNB Stadium on Tuesday evening. Amakhosi are currently fourth on the log table with 13 points after seven matches, trailing log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns by seven points.
Chiefs are back in camp after an extended FIFA international break. Their last match was a goalless draw against Golden Arrows in Durban on the 20th of September.
Amakhosi’s last win was on the 6th of September when they beat Siwelele FC 3-2 at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.
Then this was followed by two back-to-back draws against Polokwane City and Golden Arrows away from home. Coach Fernando da Cruz says it’s important for his team to stay very close with the log leaders.
“We want to stay top of the league, we want to stay in contact with the three teams in front of us, but the PSL is very long, it’s a long travel so you need to manage this kind of competition differently. There’s CAF but we will speak about the CAF after the game against Stellenbosch.”
Da Cruz says he’s happy with the performance of his team so far. Chiefs have won three matches, with four draws after seven matches.
Chiefs have scored 12 goals and conceded seven. Defender Bradley Cross says they need to improve as the season progresses.
“It’s still early in the season; we are working hard towards that and definitely it’s one of our goals. I don’t think we’ve done bad but I thinwe could have done better so we are working hard to compete for the league.”
Chiefs will have a busy month of October with three more games lined up before the end of the month. They will face Red Arrows of Zambia at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola on Saturday, before hosting the second leg encounter a week later. Defender Thabo Moloisane, formerly with Stellies, says they will take it one game at a time.
“I think there’s a lot of positives if you look at two points per four games the league is still in contention. We just want to continue fighting, working hard. The results were not what we’ve could have wanted entirely but at the same time we haven’t lost we will keep on going, keep on working hard and make sure that from tomorrow’s game going forward we continue collecting the three points that we need.”
Chiefs will close the month of October with the much-anticipated Soweto Derby against bitter rivals Orlando Pirates at the FNB Stadium on the 31st of October.
