Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler said they lost their duels in the first half, and Stellenbosch took advantage as they won 1-0 to end City’s winning run of six games.
Oura Anicet grabbed the winner for Steve Barker’s side, as Stellies moved up to third and two points behind second-placed City.
Tinkler said they lost it in the first half, where the struggled to keep possession and lost duels and the second ball.
“I think the first 45 is what killed us today,” Tinkler said after the game.
“I explained to the players, this team, first and foremost, play with a lot of energy. They play with a lot of intensity. And most importantly, they play with a lot of aggression, looking to win their duels, and the threat is going to be the ball in behind, but what’s also going to be the threat is the second ball, and we didn’t deal with that.
“In the first half, we struggled to deal with it. And they obviously got that goal from literally a counterattack – we should have scored, was a great opportunity with Goedeman, long ball and we got caught in behind, and we weren’t strong enough or aggressive enough to win our duels.
“And today, it was important to win those duels, and we didn’t do that in the first half. So we looked to try and change it up. I thought it was slightly better in terms of winning those duels and picking up the second balls.
“But we didn’t create enough threat in that final third as we did in the first half. Our ball possession today wasn’t good. Maybe you can use the pitch as a reason, but normally, our possession is a lot better. Finding the half spaces is a lot better.
“But we struggled, Goedeman struggled, Kutumela struggle. We didn’t create enough, we had one or two half chances in the second half to try and get ourselves back into the game.
“But ja, that first 45 minutes is what killed us here today.”
