BLACK Africa coach Brian Isaacs says his players have re-evaluated their opinion of Kaizer Chiefs after admitting they were star-struck in the first leg of their African Champions League tie last weekend.
Chiefs recorded a 3-0 home win at FNB Stadium on Saturday night, likely enough to see them into the next round, but Isaacs says his players have now realised Amakhosi are beatable.
"We did not play to our potential, it was a very big occasions for us and our boys were maybe a little scared of what might happen," Isaacs told Sowetan from Windhoek yesterday.
"But they are much more relaxed now, they have realised these Chiefs players are only human.
"They said things afterwards like, 'we thought [Siphiwe] Tshabalala was a big, strong player, but he is not. He is short and we can play against him'. The first leg was a big learning curve for us. We expected the worst and found that it was much easier than we thought.
"We realised after the game that we had shown too much admiration for Chiefs, shown them too much respect, and that is something we can change for the second leg."
Isaacs has reported a clean bill of health for his players and says the pitch at the Independence Stadium where the second leg will take place does allow for flowing football.
"Look, it is not a carpet, but you can play good football on it, it is not bumpy or anything like that."
He concedes that it is highly unlikely his team will overturn the deficit to win the tie, and is more focused on an improved performance, and perhaps a win on the day.
"It would be too ambitious to say we can overturn the score, but nevertheless we want to show them we can compete at this level. If after the game we have won, it will be excellent, but if not we will not be too disappointed," Isaacs said.
"We know Chiefs have the capacity to come here and destroy us. We just want to put up a good performance and hope we get a good result."
Saturday's match will kick off at 8pm.
'Chiefs are beatable'
BLACK Africa coach Brian Isaacs says his players have re-evaluated their opinion of Kaizer Chiefs after admitting they were star-struck in the first leg of their African Champions League tie last weekend.
Chiefs recorded a 3-0 home win at FNB Stadium on Saturday night, likely enough to see them into the next round, but Isaacs says his players have now realised Amakhosi are beatable.
"We did not play to our potential, it was a very big occasions for us and our boys were maybe a little scared of what might happen," Isaacs told Sowetan from Windhoek yesterday.
"But they are much more relaxed now, they have realised these Chiefs players are only human.
"They said things afterwards like, 'we thought [Siphiwe] Tshabalala was a big, strong player, but he is not. He is short and we can play against him'. The first leg was a big learning curve for us. We expected the worst and found that it was much easier than we thought.
"We realised after the game that we had shown too much admiration for Chiefs, shown them too much respect, and that is something we can change for the second leg."
Isaacs has reported a clean bill of health for his players and says the pitch at the Independence Stadium where the second leg will take place does allow for flowing football.
"Look, it is not a carpet, but you can play good football on it, it is not bumpy or anything like that."
He concedes that it is highly unlikely his team will overturn the deficit to win the tie, and is more focused on an improved performance, and perhaps a win on the day.
"It would be too ambitious to say we can overturn the score, but nevertheless we want to show them we can compete at this level. If after the game we have won, it will be excellent, but if not we will not be too disappointed," Isaacs said.
"We know Chiefs have the capacity to come here and destroy us. We just want to put up a good performance and hope we get a good result."
Saturday's match will kick off at 8pm.
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