Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi has heaped praise on Brandon Petersen and said the decision to make the change with Bruce Bvuma was due to ‘inhumane’ pressure in recent weeks.
Chiefs started the season with new signing Fiacre Ntwari before his questionable displays saw Petersen earn his place in the starting line-up but after an injury, Bruce Bvuma took his chance and retained the number one spot for most of the campaign.
In his 23 games played, he kept eight clean sheets and conceded 23 goals, a fair performance on the basis on a struggling side but some errors were nit-picked and severely criticised on social media, which likely affected the mental state of the academy product.
Petersen was then called upon for the Nedbank Cup final for his first start since December 2024, while Ntwari returned to the bench in the triumph over Orlando Pirates with a 2-1 Soweto Derby victory and their first silverware since 2015.
“Brandon Petersen, we noticed that there was extreme pressure on Bruce in these last few weeks, we believe it was inhumane pressure on him, we didn’t just want to protect him but we noticed the other two keepers are almost the same level but Brandon has been training tremendously well with Ilyez Mzoughi,” he said.
“Don’t think for one minute it was an easy decision because it could have gone either way, had he conceded, people would have asked why did you change in the final.
“But our goalkeeper coach was confident that what he’s put in, the work with Petersen can help us. In the 90 minutes, he proved that it was an excellent bet.”
Petersen has featured 47 times for Chiefs, with 17 clean sheets and 46 goals conceded since joining the club from the now-defunct Bivdest Wits back in July 2021.
