Otoho Coach – 1-0 We Accept, 2-0 That’s Hard

AS Otoho head coach Julien Mette rued conceding a second goal against Cape Town City in the first leg of their CAF Champions League first preliminary round, but hopes his team can turn things around in the second leg.

City scored two goals in the second half, after being frustrated in the first half by a defensive Congo-Brazzaville side.

Mette admitted the second goal was a sucker-punch and could make turning the tie around in the second leg a lot harder.

“A little sad,” Mette said after the game.

“We knew it’s gonna be hard, Cape Town, we knew that they’re going to be able to keep possession for a long time that, we knew that the scenario would happen.

“We know that we had to stay strong as a team, to be able to well defend, not to commit, not to concede too many opportunities.

“So we were kind of happy at the halftime, and we concede the first goal, in my opinion, too soon, because there’s a lot of time after that. And players were wondering and think they were asking too much questions in their mind.

“So that changed the plan, and the worst thing is the second goal. Second goal, I don’t understand I was in the stands, and I don’t understand this cross at the far post. I don’t understand this cross. And I don’t understand this duel. And yeah, that’s the point to me.

“One zero, we accept, two zero, that’s hard. Even if they kept possession, but I was happy about the way that my players defend. And it’s not easy for us because we had the Congolese national team who played two games last week. So I just recovered six of my players, the last days, so the whole team only got three training sessions to prepare this game.”

Mette said that he had hoped to get a draw, or at worst lose by a one-goal margin only, but was disappointed his team weren’t able to get an all-important away goal.

“I accept the second goal if we score one, but we missed opportunities, in the second half we have four good opportunities,” he continued.

“And so the target was to accept to defend away and another game at home we’ll be more offensive,” he added.

“We don’t have the choice, we have to score goals. I wanted a draw or at least defeat by one, we defeated by two, okay, but the club already did that, they know how to do that. So I  keep confident.”

In this edition of iDiski Times Grant Margeman talks about his desire to show his worth at SuperSport United and eventually return to claim a spot at Mamelodi Sundowns. Banyana coach Desiree Ellis talks about their preperation for the World Cup and how the WAFCON gold medal has changed everything. There is also a feature putting focus on the Bafana Bafana goalkeeping conundrum. Read this and a whole lot more in the full edition below: