Diogo Peral believes that the arrival of senior players such as Kamohelo Mokotjo, Fortune Makaringe and Haashim Domingo will still help the team. Peral is also pleased with youngsters who are raising their hands for the senior team.
CAPE Town City might have missed out on the first trophy of the season, but assistant coach Diogo Peral believes that they’ll get things right, especially with the new signings.
City were bundled out of the MTN8 over the weekend after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Orlando Pirates in the two-legged semi-final.
The two teams played to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Cape Town on Wednesday before Pirates won the return leg 2-0 in Orlando on Saturday afternoon.
Peral, who did the pre-match and post-match duties on behalf of head coach Eric Tinkler, believes that his troops didn’t come to the party in Orlando.
However, not all is lost for the Citizens. Peral believes that the arrival of senior players such as Kamohelo Mokotjo, Fortune Makaringe and Haashim Domingo will still help the team. Peral is also pleased with youngsters who are raising their hands for the senior team.
“The game doesn’t change anything. I think we have gotten better. I think you see if the team has gotten better or not by the time you spend at training and on the pitch,” he said.
“It’s not just about the 90-minute game. It’s better than what we had in the past – we’ve brought in some experienced players.
“They’ll be a good addition to our team. So the youngsters who have come through have surprised us – they’ve come through quicker than we expected.
“So there’s a good mix between experience and youth. We are a club that want to use our youth, but we want them to come through and compete.”
Jaedin Rhodes, 21, has been City’s brightest jewel so far this season, having also scored the equaliser in the first half against Pirates.
He and the rest of the youngsters have been impressive at training, according to Peral.
“There’s a huge, healthy competition at training, which wasn’t their last season, so we expect the team to get better,” Peral said.
He feels, however, that some players would need to scrutinise their performances against Pirates on Saturday.
“I think when it comes to individual performances, some of the guys will be disappointed in themselves,” Peral said. “I think we lost our duels. There are little things that we knew that they were going to come with and we thought we would be better, but we were not.
“Again, credit to Orlando Pirates, they played a good, good game today.”
Given Pirates’ run over the years in cup competitions, where they won four out of five, and back-to-back second-place finishes in the league, City were bound to struggle in Orlando.
After all, while the Citizens raided the market for new faces, Pirates were all about continuity as they cut off deadwood and only added a few new faces.
Vieira Gilberto, Deano van Rooyen and Selaelo Rasebotja are the notable faces that joined the Sea Robbers’ ship during the ongoing transfer window.
“It was a disappointing game, but we saw a lot of positives. We are a young team who played against a team that’s already established,” Peral said.
“Sometimes, it takes two to three seasons to be established, and teams like Pirates are established. So we are a new team and we need to learn new partnerships as well.
“We had a striker (Amadou Soukouna) that has been with us shortly this season, but he came on for 45 minutes. But we see what can happen in this team. The signs are there.”
