Polokwane — Arthur Zwane was careful not to get too carried away by it all. But the smile of contentment that flickered across the Kaizer Chiefs coach’s face as he gave an analysis of Amakhosi’s 2-0 win over Royal AM at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday evening, told the tale of a man assured his team have finally turned the corner.
Chiefs’ recent struggles, which had seen them losing their last three matches and failing to score in any of those, had some feeling Zwane had perhaps been thrown into the deep end.
The former Chiefs winger, though, had always said that he was pleased with his team’s performances and that they just needed to be a bit more clinical in attack and solid defensively. His view was that his team were making far too many silly mistakes at the back and that his strikers were wasteful.
There were no such mistakes against a Royal AM outfit they had hitherto never beaten.
Goals by Sifiso Hlanti and Ashley du Preez ensured Chiefs finally got the better of Thwihli Thwahla to move up to fifth spot on the Premiership standings.
It leaves Chiefs with a good chance of at least grabbing second spot behind runaway log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns. That achieved, Zwane will have the opportunity to lead the Chiefs in the CAF Champions League.
You would expect that prospect to have Zwane chomping at the bit. After all, he was previously denied an opportunity to contest the continent’s premier club title.
But the man from Meadowlands is not so self-centred, and while he sees participation in the Champions League a must for Chiefs, he is not looking at a return to the competition as a way to make up for that disappointment when he was moved from the head coach position in the 2021 final against Al Ahly.
“To be honest, we will always want to put ourselves under pressure; we will always want to compete at the highest level. We will always want to be amongst the best,” Zwane said.
“We will try to push hard, to push all the way and treat games as they come - one game at a time. But every game we play, we play to win.
“So, if we get that opportunity to go to the Champions League, that’s actually where we want to go and test ourselves. We would like to play Champions League every season actually.”
That is for the distant future. For now, Zwane’s main concern will be dealing with the injuries that have been a recurring problem for Chiefs this season.
On Sunday, Chiefs lost two right-backs in Reeve Frosler and Dylan Solomons, who replaced him.
“The worrying factor from this match is losing two key players in the right-back position,” Zwane lamented.
“I am not too sure what happened with Frosler, but he might have a broken cheek. Solomons, I think there’s a shoulder dislocation.”
Chiefs next play TS Galsxy this Sunday.
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IOL Sport