Benni apologises for his foul-mouthed outburst
Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy has apologised for the way he reacted to Ajax Cape Town defender Isaac Nhlapo's tackle on Teko Modise during the Cape derby.
Benni McCarthy, Coach of Cape Town City (Chris Ricco/BackpagePix)
McCarthy was seen charging towards Nhlapo and uttering unprintable words to him for his foul tackle.
“There were a couple of nasty incidents where I think I also overreacted a bit. But I’m one of those guys, I always say a team is a reflection of its manager. I’m a passionate guy from Cape Town, and if people want to bully my players, I’m the first one to stand up for them,” McCarthy told reporters after his team’s 2-0 derby win against Ajax.
READ: Ajax Cape Town vs Cape Town City – our predictions
“That was one of the situations where, as a coach, you’ve got to deal with it a little bit better, but it just shows the passion that I have for my players and for the team.
“It was just the emotions of the game, sometimes it happens. I was concerned, as we had worked so hard to get Teko back, and we know he is agile and has trickery, so for players to come in and think they can use his as a kicking bag, I took it a very badly,” McCarthy continued.
“In the heat of the moment it happens, but I should have been the better person in that incident.
“But I was just concerned about my player, as he had just come back from injury and I know how hard he had worked to get back on the pitch, and for someone to just snap at him out of anger, and risk him not playing in the upcoming MTN8 final would mean I would be stuck with a problem of losing a key player, so that is why I reacted the way I did,” concluded the former Ajax Amsterdam and Porto striker.
Any lip readers out there? What’s Benni saying? pic.twitter.com/yhp0DplNZw
— Lunga Biyela (@KingBiyela) 3 October 2017
You can never lose with Benni as your coach. pic.twitter.com/tgdaodhag8
— Yaaseen Barnes (@Ya_a_seen_Him) 2 October 2017
