AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy has lamented Raja Casablanca’s time-wasting tactics in his side’s 1-0 defeat in their CAF Champions League opener.
Usuthu held their heads high for large parts of their first ever CAFCL group stage match against the three-time champions from Morocco but eventually succumbed to a goal in the second half.
McCarthy said his team lacked the finishing touch and were later distracted by Raja’s stop-start tactics.
“A little bit of miscommunication in our defence in terms of clearing the ball and allowing Raja in behind,” he said after the match.
“They scored the all important goal but I think we could’ve done better with our defending, we could’ve done better in front of goal.
“We didn’t really work the keeper too much because we couldn’t hit the target. If you want to win football matches, you got to put the ball in the back of the net but that didn’t happen and then you go and concede a goal a few minutes later.
“Raja go 1-0 up and it becomes a game of delaying and tactical, players going down unnecessary, going down injured. They disturbed our rhythm and you don’t get five moments, because there is always a player down injured and that – stop-start, stop-start.
“Anyway, overall it was a nice experience for us. Good first match and now we have recovery to do and travel back to South Africa.
“Hopefully we take a lot of positives from this game and come good with a victory.”
AmaZulu will return to action this week when they will host Horoya, who lost 1-0 to ES Setif, in their second Group B match.
