Chippa United head coach Sinethemba Badela welcomed his team's draw against Betway Premiership defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns, but said there is still a lot more work to be done.
It did not go according to plan for the Brazilians as they settled for a 1-1 draw with the Chilli Boys after Khaya Mfecane cancelled out Arthur Sales' early goal.
It was a thrilling season opener played in front of a large, lively crowd at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
“I am proud of the players because it's their first competitive game, and we are a team that is still coming together,” Badela said.
“We are not fully fit yet, we are not fully together. We have players who only joined us last week, when we were in Johannesburg.
“So, we are not at our best yet, and for us to get a point against the eight-time league defending champions is big.
“But, I do not like to celebrate draws because once you start to celebrate draws, then in the next match, the players become complacent, and from a draw it becomes a loss.
“However, I think if you ask any team in the league, you take a draw against this super Sundowns team that just showed the world and put SA on the map at the Club World Cup.
“So, for us to get a draw against them, I do not think it's the worst result that we could have asked for. We came into the game wanting to win, but we are grateful for the point.”
Ahead of the match, Badela, 35, said he would use Saturday's clash against the league champions as a tool to elevate the team's readiness for the new season.
“We are still very far, it's a work in progress, we can't get too excited. Like I said on Thursday, we need to take a lot of information from this game.
“And this game gave us a lot of information, we needed to know how we are physically, and you could see the last 20 minutes of the game, we were starting to run out of legs, hence the changes that we made.
“The first few games of the season, especially when we have not had the most ideal preseason, where you have your six weeks with the new team.
“You would probably need about eight weeks for the players to be fully fit, for the players to fully understand the coach's plan.
“We have to watch the game; there are a lot of things that I am not happy about.
“There were times when we could have kept the ball a little longer and controlled it, but we made technical errors and gave away balls that we shouldn't have.
“But there are a lot of positives, I am happy with the chances that we created and the chances that we had been working on at training.”
The Chilli Boys play newly promoted Durban City next at Chatsworth Stadium in Durban on Wednesday (7.30pm).
The Herald
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