SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is refusing to be fooled by those giving the underdog tag to Kaizer Chiefs going into the first leg of his team’s MTN8 semifinal home tie on Sunday.
The coach of Matsatsantsa maintains that there’s no way that a tag like that can be associated with Chiefs even if the form of Amakhosi looks to be on the shaky ground.
One thing though that Tembo is hoping to use against their opponents to win Sunday’s match at Lucas Moripe Stadium (kickoff 3pm) is to turn Chiefs’ huge following to his team’s advantage by frustrating them.
“Chiefs’ support can also be to our advantage if we frustrate them a little bit‚” Tembo on Thursday.
“We’ll try and turn the crowd against them because they are a little bit vulnerable at the moment. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Other than that Tembo believes Chiefs still deserve to be given respect by his side‚ who come to this match on form with two back-to-back victories in the league.
“At the moment Chiefs’ strength is the fact that they haven’t been getting the results coming to this game‚” said Tembo of Chiefs’s threat to United.
“A lot of people are writing them off‚ which is dangerous‚ especially from our side. It’s really important for us to prepare for a tough encounter against Chiefs.”
Tembo listed a few of Chiefs’ players he feels his team will do well to pay close attention to.
“Chiefs have good individual players like Khama [Billiat]‚ who we all know what he can do. Whenever he plays Khama is a very dangerous player.
“They’ve got also [Dumisani] Zuma and they’ve brought in [Lebohang] Manyama‚ who we don’t know whether he’s going to play. But those are very good players.”
The 48-year-old former Zimbabwe international‚ given the reigns to coach the team at the beginning of the season‚ added that it was important for SuperSport to defend the trophy they won in last year’s final in Durban against Cape Town City.
“It’s a little bit of pressure for me to try and defend this trophy while also keeping focus in the league.
“We’ve got a very good team but we can’t take Chiefs for granted because they are capable of producing good results at any given time.
“We’ll approach the first leg with one thing in mind – to win and try and manage the second leg from an advantage of having won the first leg.”
Kaitano Tembo has a plan for SuperSport to beat Kaizer Chiefs
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is refusing to be fooled by those giving the underdog tag to Kaizer Chiefs going into the first leg of his team’s MTN8 semifinal home tie on Sunday.
The coach of Matsatsantsa maintains that there’s no way that a tag like that can be associated with Chiefs even if the form of Amakhosi looks to be on the shaky ground.
One thing though that Tembo is hoping to use against their opponents to win Sunday’s match at Lucas Moripe Stadium (kickoff 3pm) is to turn Chiefs’ huge following to his team’s advantage by frustrating them.
“Chiefs’ support can also be to our advantage if we frustrate them a little bit‚” Tembo on Thursday.
“We’ll try and turn the crowd against them because they are a little bit vulnerable at the moment. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Other than that Tembo believes Chiefs still deserve to be given respect by his side‚ who come to this match on form with two back-to-back victories in the league.
“At the moment Chiefs’ strength is the fact that they haven’t been getting the results coming to this game‚” said Tembo of Chiefs’s threat to United.
“A lot of people are writing them off‚ which is dangerous‚ especially from our side. It’s really important for us to prepare for a tough encounter against Chiefs.”
Tembo listed a few of Chiefs’ players he feels his team will do well to pay close attention to.
“Chiefs have good individual players like Khama [Billiat]‚ who we all know what he can do. Whenever he plays Khama is a very dangerous player.
“They’ve got also [Dumisani] Zuma and they’ve brought in [Lebohang] Manyama‚ who we don’t know whether he’s going to play. But those are very good players.”
The 48-year-old former Zimbabwe international‚ given the reigns to coach the team at the beginning of the season‚ added that it was important for SuperSport to defend the trophy they won in last year’s final in Durban against Cape Town City.
“It’s a little bit of pressure for me to try and defend this trophy while also keeping focus in the league.
“We’ve got a very good team but we can’t take Chiefs for granted because they are capable of producing good results at any given time.
“We’ll approach the first leg with one thing in mind – to win and try and manage the second leg from an advantage of having won the first leg.”
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