The temperature of coach Muhsin Ertugral appeared to exceed boiling point as Kaizer Chiefs extended their winless Premier Soccer League streak to five games during a dour goalless draw against Platinum Stars at the sun-scorched Olympia Park in Rustenburg on Sunday afternoon.
Indeed the coach’s antics and outbursts on the bench provided greater entertainment value for an increasingly irritable, 13 000-strong crowd than the drab soccer on view — with the highlight of Ertugral’s antics a heated confrontation with new Stars coach Thierry Mulonzo that threatened to degenerate into something more suited to an all-in wrestling fiasco.
But to Ertugral’s credit, he displayed a great deal more energy and effort than a team who have now scored a miserable one goal from two defeats and three draws in their past five Premier Soccer League outings and still occupy a deflating 12th position on the log.
The lack of action and enterprise from both teams was reflected in the fact that there were only three scoring attempts on-target throughout the 90 minutes, with the defensive-minded Stars the unlikely recipients of two of these efforts that mildly tested goalkeepers Emille Baron (Chiefs) and Wayne Sandilands (Stars).
Each side had a gilt-edged opportunity when it seemed easier to score than miss, with the dubious honour of miss-of-the-match going to Chiefs’ Kaizer Motaung Jnr as Amakhosi generally dithered near goal and squandered their territorial advantage.
Ertugral afterwards launched a tirade on the refereeing standard in the game and claimed his players had not been protected from some questionable tackling by Stars’ players.
In truth, however, Chiefs conceded almost as many free kicks as Stars, with the players generally performing in a less impressive vein than the officials. — Sapa