Zwane wants Chiefs in Confed Cup after cup loss to Pirates

After the disappointment of not making the final of the Nedbank Cup following their 2-1 loss to Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates on Saturday, Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane is now hoping they can at least finish in third spot in the league. 

The position will earn Chiefs a place in the Caf Confederation Cup next season and Zwane believes this will give them much-needed experience. 

Zwane is disappointed he could not help his side end the trophy drought that has now stretched to eight years after Saturday's defeat to Pirates, but believes playing the Confed Cup will be good for the club and players.

For Chiefs to earn that spot, they will have to beat SuperSport United and Cape Town City in their last two DStv Premiership ties, a difficult task because SuperSport are aiming for the same.

SuperSport still have a chance to finish second or third, while City may creep into third place if they win their last two matches and Chiefs lose theirs.

“As much as the club is in the rebuilding phase we still want to participate in Caf [competitions] next season,” Zwane said after their loss on Saturday.

“Unfortunately those chances [of finishing third] are a bit slim but it's all up to us again. We're not going to give up. We're playing against SuperSport and if we finish in position three, that will obviously give us hope going forward.  

“It [Confed Cup] will help us prepare for Caf Champions League in years to come because the Confederation Cup can prepare you much better. The fact is you start travelling and it changes the mindset ... players need to dig deeper and be able to deal with many challenges of travelling all over Africa.

“That's how players can grow with the demands of playing at that level.

“If it doesn't happen [finishing third], it doesn't mean we've had a bad season ... I think with a new squad and also giving the youngsters coming from our development a chance, it's been a good season in some of the things that we did right.

“Unfortunately the results were fluctuating, were not consistent, but we're looking forward to next season. We can do things better and we can learn from this season's mistakes and move on.”

Zwane said the difference between them and Pirates — in a season both clubs started with new mentors — was that Chiefs had many new players and they also suffered when key players had injuries, including Khama Billiat, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Keagan Dolly. 

“We had a lot of new players who needed to gel with the team. Pirates already had a core, but with us we didn't have that. We had to start afresh.

“Most of our key players, for me very key players who could have played a huge role, even in today's [Saturday] game and any other games that we ended up losing, were out injured. 

“Those who were given an opportunity gave their best. We had to chop and change the team. It was the most difficult season in terms of injuries and the challenges we came across in making sure we have that consistency within the squad.”

Chiefs will first visit SuperSport at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg on Saturday before finishing their season at home against City on May 20.

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