De Sa delighted by Rusike’s influence
Maritzburg United coach Roger de Sa says he took a gamble by bringing on striker Evans Rusike at half-time against Free State Stars.
Roger De Sa Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix
The half time substitute found the equaliser for the Team of Choice as they fought back to walk away with maximum points against Ea Lla Koto.
Lebogang Maboe provided the winning strike with 10 minutes left on the clock, the initial shot for the winning goal came from Rusike rattling the post before Maboe snuck it past the keeper.
“To be honest, I think it [the win] was deserved and I thought we were better than them [Free State Stars], especially after they scored, we were playing pretty well,” De Sa told reporters after the game.
“We created chances and we looked in control of the game in the first 20, 25 minutes until we conceded.
“We made a change [at half-time], we brought Evans in and Evans is not hundred percent there yet, but we thought ‘let’s take a risk’ and Mokate was looking a bit tired and it paid off.
“We then changed the formation slightly and we let Kwanda [Mngonyama] go a bit on the right-hand side and we just played with the back three and it kind of worked.”
The Zimbabwean international has scored four goals this season as he looks to return to the starting XI after he was deemed mentally unfit by De Sa following Zimbabwe’s premature exit from the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Gabon.
“This result enables us to look ahead of us not behind us, and it puts you in the position where you now look at the teams above us not worried about teams behind us,” he stressed.
“Hopefully we can focus on the glass half-full and not the glass half-empty this time. But now we’re there with those teams around position six, seven and eight, so we’ve got a chance [to go further].”
