Ertugral’s delight but Pirates lie in wait

New Cape Town City coach Muhsin Ertugral will have little time to work on fixes needed by his team ahead of Wednesday’s Betway Premiership clash against Orlando Pirates but said he was delighted with most aspects of their 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday.

Ertugral returned after a six absence to the dugout in South African football as he replaced Eric Tinkler at the helm of City.

“We don't have any time at all. I mean, look, what can you change in three days?” he asked before answering his own question.

“What you can change is the collectiveness, the spirit that they believe in themselves.”

Ertugral saw City edge Chiefs with a 51st minute goal from Darwin Gonzalez and move themselves well clear of the relegation zone.

“There's really a lot of quality in our team. It is important with these type of teams, or this type of football, that you always want to see individualism, these bold virtuosas. But collectiveness is sometimes missing in South African football, the organisation that has to be in synergy,” he explained.

“So that is what we worked on in last days, just the collectiveness when we lose the ball. That was important. And then the most important thing is how we could counter because we know that Chiefs is a team that has the deficit when you have a quick transition. We had, if I'm not mistaken, six or seven entries into the last third, and then obviously the challenge for us is to find the right timing, right pass, right dribbling.

“The team played with a lot of discipline. I call that the red zone and the golden zone. The golden zone is where the goals are scored. And the red zone, 30 metres in front of the defensive line, was actually well blocked. They wanted to suck our wing backs out and separate the centre backs. We didn't want to fall into that trap because you will open up your defence.

“We stayed and let them have the ball outside, and it worked for us. And I must say, I'm pretty amazed how quickly we got those elements, the collectiveness when we lose the ball, what to do, and I'm really very happy for the players who played with this type of discipline.”