HERMAN GIBBS
Cape Town City’s faith in Darwin Gonzalez paid dividends after he scored the match winner from the spot in his side’s tense 1-0 win over hosts Sekhukhune United in Saturday afternoon’s MTN8 quarter-final at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.
It was a big call by City to persevere with Gonzalez as their penalty taker after he missed a spot-kick four minutes before half-time. Four minutes from the end, referee Thabo Mkhabela awarded City a second penalty and Gonzalez was again called up.
This time the Venezuelan midfielder kept his shot low and wide of Sekhukhune’s Ivorian goalkeeper Badra Ali Sangaré, who dived in the wrong direction. Gonzalez’s earlier attempt was kept out by the crossbar.
City coach Eric Tinkler said afterwards that Gonzalez was the club’s first choice as a penalty taker. He had proved himself at training and the club had full confidence even after he failed in his first attempt.
“Gonzalez has been our best penalty taker at training,” said Tinkler.
“Normally his penalties are really, really good and that’s the first time he’s actually missed one in a match. Even (after) missing earlier, he was the obvious one to take the second one.
“I don’t think there was a better candidate because I think everybody else would have now shown more fear after Gonzalez’s earlier miss. He knew what he had done wrong.
“He normally doesn’t go where he went today in that first penalty. The second one is what he normally produces in terms of his penalties.
“So, it made sense to send him up for the second penalty. I don’t think it would have made sense to give someone else the opportunity. I think they would have been thinking about the missed penalty in the first place.”
The penalty proved decisive after City and Sekhukhune were fairly evenly matched, although the visitors enjoyed a slight possession advantage. Tinkler said his team was prepared for a tough contest.
“This fixture was always going to be a difficult game for us because of our history against Sekhukhune. The games have never been easy. They are a very physical team with lots of aerial ability,” said Tinkler.
“They like to play lots of balls in behind our defence and that was something that we have always struggled with as a team. We knew from the outset what were going to face, irrespective of whether there were coaching changes at Sekhukhune.
“It was not something that we thought about (Sekhukhune’s coaching changes). We were worrying about ourselves and tried to play our game with aggression and tried to step up our intensity and mentality.
“I felt the players gave me that today. It was not easy, to be brutally honest. It was not the prettiest of games.
“The hard part for us as coaches is that you go through six weeks of pre-season where you do a lot of work in terms of the tactical elements and the physical elements.”
Tinkler was relieved that his side had won because it ensures two matches for the team later this month when the two-legged semi-finals are played.
If City lost Saturday’s quarter-final, their next competitive match would be on September 14, when the Premiership kicks off.
Said Tinkler: “Thank goodness we are playing semi-finals, otherwise I would be planning another pre-season over the next month.”