Chiefs’ Johnson denies he was ‘outfoxed’ in Sundowns hammering

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Cavin Johnson denied that he was tactically trumped by Mamelodi Sundowns in the second half of their 5-1 DStv Premiership trouncing on Thursday.

Chiefs went into the break with the scores goalless, even though Amakhosi had seen Given Msimango sent off for a professional foul in just the 19^th minute.

But Sundowns picked Chiefs apart in the second half, with Tashreeq Matthews grabbing a brace, and Mathias Esquivel, Lucas Ribeiro and Thembinkosi Lorch also on the scoresheet in a dominant display.

Johnson, however, believes that a refereeing mistake was actually the spark for Chiefs’ downfall.

“Their first goal was a foul for us, and the referee pointed the other way,” said Johnson.

‘It was like a snowball’

“From that moment they (Sundowns) went to the other side (of the pitch) and scored a goal. That breaks the players, it was our Achilles heel. It takes it out of us, we were one man down and the foul belonged to Chiefs. After that it was like a snowball (effect).

“I don’t think I was exposed,” he added.

“It kills players (the decision for the first goal) it was not a goal, it was a ball for Chiefs. Then they had the momentum going forward, and after that yes, for their third, fourth and fifth goals our players backed off, that is not normal.

“But I don’t think they outfoxed me, we just did the wrong things on the pitch.”