Cape Town City interim coach Muhsin Ertugral has given more insight into how they beat Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday – a Chiefs side that Ertugral says is full of quality players but are weak at defending quick counters.
Ertugral was named as City’s Technical Director last week, and also as interim coach to replace Eric Tinkler until the end of the 2024/25 season.
After the 1-0 victory, with Darwin Gonzalez netting the winner, Ertugral said he was somewhat fortunate to start against Chiefs, as despite being away from South African football for several years, Chiefs and City are two of the teams he’s been keeping a close eye on.
The 65-year-old added that while some have said the contrary, he believes that there is a lot of quality players at Naturena, and they had to be tactically smart to overcome Nasreddine Nabi’s side.
“Ja, it was not long for us to work,” Ertugral said after the game.
“I mean, I can stand now in front and tell stories. Obviously, I know the team very well. Since I’ve been back in October after the Euros I came back to South Africa and was resting, and obviously I’ve always [had a] connection to the Chairman, Mr John Comitis, and we were talking about the team and about my future.
“I’m always invited to the games and watch the team, and actually know where their problems are. And obviously the Chiefs team always [has] my interest, and obviously watching the team very closely. That has helped me as a coach, not being involved in South Africa, but helped me quickly to get my feet in to understand where the challenges are.
“And ja, today, I must say that first Chiefs is a good team. And I hear this sometimes, this wording that there’s no quality. There’s beautiful quality there. There’s really a lot of quality.
“For us, it was important that the this type of teams or this type of football is always you want to see this individualism, these bold virtuosas, but collectiveness sometimes is missing in South African football, the organization that has to be in synergy.
“So that is that what we worked on last three days more the inner zone patterns, and not much, just the collectiveness when we lose the ball, that was for as important, and the most important thing is how we can counter.
“Because we know that Chiefs is a team that has the deficit, when you have a quick transition offensive part, and when you place yourself a little bit on the right way, you could end up in the last third.”
