Chippa United head coach Kwanele Kopo highly praised experienced Andile Jali despite their 2-1 defeat to Orlando Pirates.
Jail joined Chilli Boys as a free agent after leaving Moroka Swallows in November last year. Since then, he never played a competitive match and made his return after 10 months against his former club at Orlando Stadium.
The Eastern Cape-born midfield enforcer returned to eSogdini in style as he scored a cracker from outside the box to give Chippa the lead, leaving Sipho Chaine with no chance. Despite his marvellous performance, Jali was substituted at halftime due to a struggle with a hamstring.
Speaking to the media in his post-match presser, Kopo was not short of admiration for ‘AJ15’, stating that he is the coach on the field as he guides the youngsters around him.
“He has been massive for the club since he joined us,” Kopo said.
“Andile has trained very hard after a couple of months of no activity at all having left Swallows in November.
“Since we started preseason, he has been training an hour before everybody else in the gym. He is not 100% yet but because of the challenges we have in the central midfield, we felt that even if he gave us 60 minutes of leadership, we knew with him we would be able to be on the ball more.
“We’ve got a youngster playing centre-back Thabang Malowa he hasn’t played much, and we needed an Andile to guide our buildup, to give these youngsters confidence, and to help Majogoro not good with communication who is struggling with English.
“So, Andile is gonna play a massive role in the team and I’m so happy for him that he scored because so many people would’ve expected the worst. People saying he is gonna come back overweight and all that. I think the quality shows that it’s there, the fitter he gets, the stronger he’s gonna make us become.
“The influence is massive for us, he is the coach on the field that we need, and I think he’s gonna help the team going forward together with Stanley [Nwabali], Justice [Chabalala], and Eva [Nga] they form the spine of the team.”
