SuperSport United’s acting coach Andre Arendse had mixed feelings after his side’s 2-1 defeat at Stellenbosch on Saturday left them in 14th place in the Betway Premiership standings.
Stellenbosch were 2-0 up after a dominant first half with goals from Sanele Barns and Devin Titus but fought back in the second half and were denied a comeback by a man of the match performance from home goalkeeper Oscarine Masuluke.
SuperSport are level on points with Cape Town City as the two try to avoid the promotion-relegation playoffs but Arendse’s side have a game in hand.
On the match which Stellenbosch won
“You know when I hear people say, ‘it's a game of two halves’, I keep thinking, ‘what do you mean a game of two halves?’ It's a 90-minute game, but I'll tell you what this game for me … there was an example of game of two halves. We were nowhere in the first one, absolutely nowhere, to extent of, you know what, it was bordering on embarrassing. And the players knew it, I let them know. Now, when I see performance like that in the second half, that's something to be proud of, because that's what we are as a team. That kind of fight, that kind of grit, that kind of never getting up. And that's what was missing in the first half. I'll tell you something, if give a team like Stellenbosch two goals and expect to come back from it, it's just it's impossible. There were a team full of quality, a top coach, we know that. But we just kind of clocked out in the first half and those are the things we need to do better.”
On staving off the threat of relegation
“I was looking for something to take away from this game, going into the midweek game and the game after that, and the players gave it to me in the second half. There's no doubt about that. You know, we'll assess the squad, we'll see who's a bit tired, who's got heavy legs and stuff like that. But the performance in the second half was something that I could be proud of. And that's what it was. We spent the whole week working a lot on our set pieces, and that was an example today that it pays off when you execute the way you train. And I was happy about that.”
On next Tuesday’s game against an Orlando Pirates side who were held at home by TS Galaxy?
“It is a positive, but you're still coming up against a real quality side. They are going to give you nothing, or very little, and we're going to have to work for what we want to get out of that particular game. So for us, it's a little bit different, because we can't afford to lose the game. That's the bottom line for us. and a win is even more important. So we're going to have to work the team along those lines. We'll have a look at Pirates and we'll see where we need to do things. But I go into that game a lot more positive, just only based on that second half.”