Johnson lauds Chiefs young gun Shabalala for a cool finish

Cavin Johnson praised young attacking midfielder Mduduzo Shabalala, after the 20 year-old finally hit the back of the net for Kaizer Chiefs this season, with a well-taken winner in Saturday’s 2-1 DStv Premiership win over SuperSport United.

Shabalala had spoken to the media earlier last week about his need to contribute more in front of goal. And he backed up his words with actions at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, as he fired in from the edge of the box in the 76^th minute, to give Amakhosi just their second win of 2024.

“’Shabba’ placed it well, with no power, with calmness,’” said Johnson after the match.

“He has been on the fringes for a while, in and out, he has started to play a few games and in the last game he came in and played 70 minutes. He has always been there, a quality player, fighting to be in the team. And tonight he scored a goal. Like any player in his position it makes him better when he scores. I think he played very well today.”

The victory boosted Chiefs in their bid to at least qualify for the MTN8 next season, and will also have given them a lift ahead of their league showdown with Mamelodi Sundowns on Thursday.

Chiefs had scored just three times in nine games in all competitions this year before Saturday, and will need to have their shooting boots on again when they come up against a side of Masandawana’s quality.

Man-of-the-Match Christian Saile was Chiefs’ other goalscorer, hammering in a quality first half finish to put the home side in front, before SuperSport rallied, levelling after the break via a penalty from substitute Terrence Dzvukamanja.

‘At least we got two’

“Saile scored a goal he scores every day in training,” added Johnson on just the Congolese attacker’s fourth league goal of the season, and his first since November.

“On other days he hasn’t scored. Shabba scored a goal from training where we have set up drills specifically for that technique. I am happy, because at least we got two goals today. Last week we got zero, the week before we got zero, but we still played good football.”  

Chiefs still face a fight over their last five matches to finish inside the top eight. After Saturday’s matches there were just four points separating Amakhosi in eighth in the table from Royal AM down in 13th.