Amakhosi played with belief and confidence says frustrated Nabi

Matshelane Mamabolo

OH, THE cruelty of this game called soccer.

Sometimes you wonder just why they call it the beautiful game, right?

But, as the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson once said: “Football, bloody hell.”

Our own Kgoloko Thobejane put it much more succinctly: “Football will kill you a real death.”

On the occasion of his maiden Soweto Derby on Saturday, Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi had done a good job at proving just why the Amakhosi believe he is the man to take them back to the glory days.

And then, just like that, it was taken away from him.

Patrick ‘Tito’ Maswanganyi’s penalty goal in time added on for stoppages did not “kill him a real death“.

But it killed him alright, the Tunisian standing motionless, hands akimbo on the side of the dug-out – disbelieving what he’d just witnessed.

After all, his team – underdogs in most people’s eyes, given Pirates’ splendid form that saw them with the best qualification record for the CAF Champions League quarter-finals – had fought a very good fight, and actually should have pulled the rug from under the championship contenders’ feet.

Pule Mmodi should have scored in the first five minutes, but he incredulously allowed Bruce Bvuma to deny him, the Chiefs player failing to put the ball in the net one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Score that and Chiefs – who had done superbly to match Pirates in play and sometimes overwhelming their revered opposition with some crisp interchanges – would have taken the ascendency.

And with Pirates not really resembling the team that beat both CR Belouizdad and the mighty Al Ahly in their own backyard as they went through the group stages of the premier continental club competition unbeaten, Chiefs had their beating.

Nabi lived every moment of the match, spending most of the first half pacing up and down the technical area like a man whose wife was in labour at the hospital, about to give birth to their son.

And the match was pregnant with promise for the Amakhosi. They looked eager for a scrap, and went at Pirates fearlessly, with Nabi cajoling them from the sidelines.

An uninformed observer would not have told Nabi was coaching in the country’s biggest match for the first time. Granted, he hardly sat down – especially in the first half.

But not once was there a sign of panic on his part, not even when Pirates enjoyed periods of domination, and Relebohile Mofokeng’s class shone through as he pierced the Chiefs defence open.

He stood on the sidelines, either with his hands akimbo or arms folded, and when the opportunity allowed during stoppages, he called a few players towards him to give instructions.

You knew he was content with how his team were doing when he returned from the halftime break with an unchanged team, while Pirates made a substitution.

The ones he made later on were clearly to impact the match, although that did not really happen as he’d have expected.

Nabi lost his maiden derby, and the hurt was evident deep in the bowels of the calabash during the post-match conference as he sat with his hand on his chin, and then arms folded, as he stared at the media hounds shooting a flurry of questions at him.

“I congratulated the players after the match because there were some opportunities to beat the opponents,” he said.

“But we knew it was not going to be easy against a team that is practically on the top of African football.

“We played with belief and confidence that Kaizer Chiefs are a big club, and that’s why it is frustrating to lose in these circumstances.

“But there is a game in two days (against AmaZulu on Tuesday), and that’s why we can’t focus on what went wrong.”

Nabi admitted that it was sad to lose the derby, but was not about to complain about the spot-kick that was given after Njabulo Blom looked to have pulled Mofokeng back in the box.

“We lost the derby, but there is another one coming, and we will try to do it,” he said.

“I am happy that my team is improving since I came here. The derby was intense, and we expected it was going to be a very tactical game.

“And the only thing is to congratulate the winning team. I firmly believe this is a game we did not deserve to lose.” On the balance of play, a draw would probably have been a fair result.

But football is not a fair sport. It is a crazy game that is never over until the final whistle has been blown.

It is “bloody hell” ... a game that can “kill you a real death”.