12 September 2008 

Igesund - the belief is there



Coach Gordon Igesund believes that his players are in the right frame of mind ahead of Sunday's clash against Kaizer Chiefs.

“The nice thing about it is the players believe in themselves,” he is reported as saying by the Natal Witness.

“I’ve told them, ‘who are these teams, every team in this league has got a chance to beat everybody’. Thanda Royal Zulu beat Chiefs last week. We can’t go into any games thinking we’re inferior - it’s all about how we apply ourselves.”

The four-time PSL winning coach feels that Maritzburg can only improve on the season opening game against Ajax Cape Town, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

“Our first game was an impressive performance where, after just the little bit of work we had done, the players applied themselves. So I’m imagining after what we’ve done in the last two weeks, we’re going to be a much better outfit. But we’re not going to be over confident.

“Some of the coaches have complained about the break these last two weeks, but for us personally, it was a blessing. I think we’ve caught up and all we need now is games under the belt.”

The tactical battle between Igesund and his Chiefs counterpart, Muhsin Ertugral should be an intriguing one, with both coaches looking to out manoeuvre each other on the day.

“I can tell you exactly what Muhsin’s line-up will be and how he is going to play, and what he wants us to do so we can fall into certain traps. We’ve been in the game a long time and we know each other.

“He will say things like that, but he doesn’t know exactly what I’ll be doing on Sunday, and I don’t know exactly what he’ll be doing. There’s always something each side doesn’t know, and it’s the something special you produce that can win the game.

“Besides, it’s not Muhsin and me playing out there, it’s our teams on the park and they have to do the job.”

Amakhosi have striker José Torrealba out suspended, while United have had niggling injuries to right-back Peter Petersen and midfielder Million Makhubela.