Highlands Park have developed a reputation as the hardest running team of the Premier Soccer League but Lamontville Golden Arrows showed similarly impressive fitness on Sunday as they held Cape Town City to a 1-1 draw for a valuable away point.
They played a high pressing game for much of the 90 minutes‚ effectively strangling their hosts and not allowing City to play their natural running game.
“When you look at Highlands Park play‚ they are brought together by a work ethic.
"When you see Manchester City play‚ they are brought together by their technical quality‚” explained coach Steve Komphela after his side moved up to fifth place in the PSL standings.
“All teams need something that binds them together and our unity is dependent on the work ethic as well.
“If you don’t have the depth of talent that other clubs in the league have‚ then you must depend on something. For us‚ we are very fit.
“The game style that we play‚ where we are going to be acting and reacting‚ demands that we are highly explosive‚ and those actions must be consistent for 90 minutes.
“There is no way you can play a pressing game for 90 minutes but we know how to manage it. We depend heavily on our work ethic.”
But while Komphela has got the physical side of the game right‚ he said much work was still needed on the mental side.
He said players still lacked maturity when in good scoring positions — hence too many wasted chances.
“When we attack we shouldn’t be desperate. When we have clear chances‚ we want to be flamboyant.
“We had the better of the available chances on the day but we regret the ones we had but never utilised‚” added Komphela.
But he was still pleased with the share of the spoils.
“For us as Golden Arrows going home with a point‚ even though we could have had three‚ we should be happy.”
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