CAPE Town City FC coach Benni McCarthy has dismissed the perception that Wednesday’s 1-0 Nedbank Cup win over Orlando Pirates was his biggest achievement in his coaching career since turning professional last year.
“No, this was not my biggest win,” McCarthy said with a serious face, showing some displeasure about the question. “I would not give them that much credit – to say beating Pirates was the greatest win of my career.
“We have beaten equally good teams before. Beating Bidvest Wits remains my biggest win because it was against the coach (Gavin Hunt) who started it all for me.”
McCarthy got his start under Hunt many years ago.
“Futhermore, Wits are the defending league champions. Defeating the league champions, more than once, will forever be the biggest victory for me.
“Obviously, along the way we’ve defeated the African champions (Mamelodi) Sundowns too.
“It is great that the boys gave such a good performance against Pirates, who are on form at the moment. They stood their ground, went toe-to-toe with Pirates and were not intimidated.”
McCarthy is happy to have made it to the next round of the Ke Yona Cup.
“I just had my pro-licence course and I have been to Man City, where I acquired a thing or two.
“I told my players to have fun. We instilled possession football. There was no panicking,and the quality was amazing. We stayed as calm as possible.”
He admitted targeting Thembinkosi Lorch, Thabo Qalinge and Justin Shonga to enable City players to get past Pirates and in return the Buccaneers man-marked Teko Modise and goal-scorer Ayanda Patosi, limiting their options.
“Bucs had some weaknesses that we wanted to exploit,” he said. “Luckily Patosi had the energy to get in there and slot one in for us. That was the turning point.”
