CAPE Town City head coach Benni McCarthy says he is not worried about the upcoming MTN8 final against SuperSport United at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday (7pm).
Speaking after putting his charges through their paces at the Greenpoint athletics track yesterday, McCarthy said the team was in high spirits.The coach is hoping to scoop his first trophy for the team after he took over the reins from Eric Tinkler, who coincidentally is now in charge of Matsatsantsa a Pitori.
Said the former Bafana Bafana star: “It’s a game of football. Final or no final, you have to continue with what you do. Play well, work as hard as you can and obviously you will not be making it easy for the opposition. “Hopefully we can continue our current good run and if we win, even better.”
He said they would not underestimate their opponents: “They are well organised, with Eric’s organising skills I think they are very good. It’s going to be very difficult but we have played teams as organised as them – and maybe even a little bit more so. We will just deal with that.”
McCarthy compared the SuperSport game to the clashes between the Citizens and Bidvest Wits in the two-legged semifinals.“We can take a lot that we learned from the Wits games on board, because the two teams are similarly equipped in terms of strength and depth in their sides,” he added.
McCarthy expressed excitement, however, about having a strong squad at his disposal, free of injuries.“The guys are training extra hard for the match. I have good players who are in good shape. I actually struggled to select 18 players – and it will be more difficult to select the starting XI.“
"We have a strong team and individuals capable of winning the game for us,” added McCarthy.
City captain Robyn Johannes admits they have a tough match ahead against Matsatsantsa.Johannes said: “We will fight to win, as we do in any other game.”
He added that although they had only had two seasons in the PSL so far, they were no longer a small team, saying those who regarded them as small team did so at their own peril.
“We won the Telkom Knockout and finished third in the league last season – we are not a small team,” he said.The Citizens won