Tinkler – A Fantastic Opportunity For Players

While he will have to lead from the stands, Eric Tinkler is looking for a good positive result when they host AS Otoho in their first-ever CAF Champions League tie on Saturday.

The two teams meet in the first leg at Athlone Stadium, in first preliminary round action.

Because of recently applied CAF regulations, Tinkler, who has taken two teams to CAF finals, will not be allowed to sit on the bench as head coach. Despite holding a UEFA A Licence, local head coaches must have a CAF Pro or CAF A Licence, while foreign coaches must have the UEFA Pro Licence. His assistant Diogo Peral, will lead the team on the pitch. Peral holds a CAF B Licence, 

Tinkler said they had tried to do some homework on Otoho, but with a change in coach, so strategies could be slightly different from what they saw in the footage.

“We play at home now against AS Otoho from the Congo,” Tinkler said in the build-up.

“Getting footage of them wasn’t very, very easy. The last game that we obviously got was their cup match that they played in, so it gives us a general idea of the players, lineup, type of formation, although there’s no guarantee, obviously, because they also had a change of coach after that cup final.

So he might come up with a different strategy in terms of how they played but in terms of the personnel, we’ve managed to obviously study them, the best that we could possibly study them. Important for us at home, this being a two-legged affair, to be positive, play on the front foot is key. Play at a good intensity is very, very important if we want to see ourselves progressing in this competition.

“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for a lot of players to truly measure themselves on the African continent, in terms of what they’re capable of, and what they potentially could achieve further in their careers. So the further we go in the competition, the better it is, obviously for the club, and obviously also for the players themselves.

“So we will definitely be taking this game very, very seriously to set ourselves up for obviously the second leg in the Congo.”

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: