‘It’s football,’ says Ntseki of Peterson’s costly Chiefs mistakes

Molefi Ntseki refused to point fingers at any of his players after Kaizer Chiefs’ 2-1 DStv Premiership defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns on Wednesday afternoon. 

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Sundowns scored through Chiefs’ own mistakes, both of which can be attributed to goalkeeper Brandon Peterson, who wore the captain’s armband on the day. 

For the first goal, Peterson passed the ball onto Edson Castillo who was running backwards facing his own goal. The midfielder tried to kick it away but a Sundowns player, Peter Shalulile, intercepted. 

It would have made more sense for Peterson to clear the ball away. Shalulile then passed the ball to an unmarked Lucas Ribeiro inside the Chiefs box and the Brazilian scored.

And after Chiefs had fought hard to get back into the game and had just equalised, Peterson made another mistake. He fumbled what looked to be an easy catch from a Neo Maema’s shot. 

But Ntseki said he would not put the blame on him. He prefered to focus on the good that the keeper did for the team on the day. 

“On Brandon, things like this do happen in football,” Ntseki told the media after the match at the newly revamped Lucas Moripe Stadium. 

“If you were to count how many times he came out to save the team, it would nullify the mistakes he made that led to the goals.”

Ntseki not please with first half performance

Ntseki said his entire team should rather take the blame for the goal as football is a team sport and individuals should not be blamed for results.

“Anything that happens in a game of football, is a team effort. If we were to look back and try to trace where the first mistake was made, it is not only about him letting in the goal. 

“But the whole team made a mistake and that’s how we conceded.”

Besides the mistakes, Ntseki was not happy with how his team applied themselves, especially in the first half.

“It was a highly tactical game. When you look at the two teams and the tactical approach… 

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“The analysis we did on Sundowns, and I think they also did the same. But tactically we didn’t apply ourselves in the first half.”