New season, same old Kaizer Chiefs?
Kaizer Chiefs rolled up to the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday for the Toyota Cup, and proceeded to prove that old habits die hard.
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Failing to take their chances has been a problem that has beset Chiefs for the best part of the last decade.
Chiefs' creation argument
It was a problem that Nasreddine Nabi and his staff at times tried to turn into a positive last season, as Chiefs laboured to a ninth place finish in the Betway Premiership. Their claim was that Chiefs were creating more than most sides, the implication of which was that at some point the law of averages suggested they would start banging the goals in.
It didn't really happen, however, and again on Saturday against Ghana's Asante Kotoko, Chiefs showed that they appear to have an aversion to hitting the back of the net.
Flavio Silva, their new Portuguese striker, has had a difficult pre-season. He has already been dismissed by some impatient Chiefs supporters, Amakhosi perhaps paying a price for broadcasting their pre-season friendlies in the Netherlands.
Against Kotoko, Silva was again fairly anonymous, and was replaced by Wandile Duba in the second half. The nature of pre-season friendlies means this may well have been planned before the match, but Duba certainly made more of an impact, clattering the bar with one long-range effort.
Spot kick misery
Still, Chiefs just couldn't score, even when they were awarded a soft penalty with about five minutes on the clock. New club captain Inacio Miguel stepped up, but missed the target.
Miguel also went on to have the deciding penalty in the shootout saved by Kotoko 'keeper Mohamed Camara. Chiefs, indeed, only managed to score with two of their six penalties in the shootout.
Sure, this was a far better performance than last year's 4-0 Toyota Cup loss to Young Africans of Tunisia. Chiefs certainly defended well, bar one lapse that gave Kotoko's Kwame Opoku a free header from a corner in the first half.
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But the overall feeling just a couple of weeks ahead of the new Premiership season has to be that Chiefs have failed to resolve their scoring problem. And that has to be worrying for Nabi and company.
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