AmaZulu FC Head Coach, Pablo Franco has given his analysis into Usuthu’s semi-final exit, following
their 3-2 loss to TS Galaxy FC in the Carling Knockout at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday
afternoon, December 3rd .
Although the Spanish mentor’s side gave a good account of themselves in a thrilling semifinal bout
during many crucial moments of the game, they bowed out of the competition due to numerous
missed goal scoring opportunities.
“Of course, when you are losing from the very first minute, it’s much more complicated, especially
against teams which defend that well. We knew about that, that it was going to be difficult if they
took the lead.”
“I think we tried, but we were lacking energy again. This is something that I’m worried about and it
happened in the last two games. We were not playing our best football needed.”
Missed Chances
“Even though we could create many goal scoring chances, in the first half we could have scored
easily two, three goals, they were much more accurate than us. They killed us in those transitions,
and vertical attacks. When we were patient then we found the spaces and we could find the last
pass to finish, and we couldn’t do the same that they did.”
Penalty Calls
“In the second half we were a little bit more exposed, knowing that they could hammer us in the
counter attacks, we got one goal. We created few chances, there’s a penalty that I think is very
clear.”
“I think the penalty also in the first half I need to double check it because I have some doubts about
it. It’s a pity that these decisions change and decide results as well as competitions at semifinals.
Anyway, what I can tell you is that we tried till the end.”
We Could Have Done Better
“We have this fighting spirit even when we conceded the third goal, and we are scoring the second
one. I think we could have done better. If we are doing better, even if there are mistakes from
someone else, we could have gotten a better result. This is what we need to control and what we
need to work in doing the things that we can control better, play better football, and try to be more
accurate and of course recover our capacity to defend well because this is what gave us better
results,” said Franco after his pitch-side match analysis.
