By Sports Reporter
Herentals . . . . . . . . .0
NGEZI PLATINUM STARS . . . . 0
Ngezi Platinum Stars coach Erol Akbay was left a frustrated man after seeing his team play out a goalless draw against hosts Herentals in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
The platinum miners came into the match at the back of a big win over Chicken Inn last week and were hoping to build on that, but they found the hosts a stubborn lot and could not breach their defence.
Despite the match being played at a medium tempo, Akbay still felt that his team could have upped the pace.
He also complained about the playing surface, saying the Rufaro Stadium grass was too high for his players to play their normal passing game.
Both teams created some chances, but it was Ngezi, through Donald Teguru, who probably had the best after the speedy forward found himself free inside the penalty box, but directed his header wide on 25 minutes.
Akbay was not pleased with the number of chances his team created.
“You could see during play that this is not the way Ngezi Platinum play football, we play to create a lot of chances. In the second half, we pressed more to try and go for goal, but it was not to be,” Akbay said in his post-match comments.
“We have a problem with high grass pitches. We want to play football, but we can’t in pitches like that.”
Herentals mentor Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva observed that his team was a bit complacent after their win over Dynamos in the previous match.
“We had a good game, but we failed to convert chances. I think this was a result of the failure to apply basics. We did not do much in terms of attack. In terms of ball possession and application we were better than Ngezi,” he said.
