It was all action, but little satisfaction for Kaizer Chiefs and Santos in a helter-skelter 1-1 Premiership draw at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday night that left both teams’ objectives unfulfilled.
Chiefs, placed in 11th position in the log and facing the ignominy of failing to qualify for the Top Eight competition for the second successive year, are no better off from sharing the spoils than they were before the game.
Santos, vainly chasing Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United in the championship race, are now four points behind the frontrunners with four games to play and needed a win badly to be considered strong contenders.
”There was only one team attacking in this game,” said Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral afterwards, ”and that was not Santos. Needing three points urgently in the title race, I would have expected them to play a more offensive game and shown greater ambition.”
And while Chiefs dominated possession in the encounter and characteristically squandered a host of inviting opportunities, it was Santos who opened the score in the 44th minute through a copybook strike by Malawian Tawonga Chimodzi after Eleazer Rodgers had demonstrated admirable poise in engineering the goal.
Defender Mokete Tsotetsi, who was out-thought and outpaced by Rodgers when Amakhosi fell a goal behind, made amends to a great degree while scoring Chiefs’ equaliser with a perfectly timed and placed header in the 60th minute following David Mathebula’s free kick.
Initially Santos appeared poised and confident in their counter-attacking approach and were only prevented from taking a 20th minute lead by a stunning, point-blank save from Itumeleng Khune in Chiefs’ goal.
But the incessant pressure seemed to unnerve Santos towards the end and only a barrage of saves by Wayne Roberts kept the scoreline level.
Then, in the 86th minute, Santos should have sneaked a victory against the run of play when substitute Ryan Champam caught the Chiefs defence on the wrong foot and shot tamely with the goal at his mercy. – Sapa