Adnan Beganovic is a players’ coach. While he concedes that TS Galaxy should have beaten Kaizer Chiefs on Monday, he didn’t blame his team for lack of effort.
Galaxy have won two games and drawn two in the Betway Premiership since Beganovic took over the reins from Sead Ramovic sometime last month.
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The two draws have been Beganovic’s blemishes. But given the poor run of form early into the season, they are on a turnover from Ramovic’s poor start to the season.
Beganovic has brought a sigh of relief into this Galaxy team that they were close to finding their third win in just four matches against Amakhosi in Mbombela.
But Chiefs left it late as Ranga Chivaviro came off the bench during half-time to score the equaliser, cancelling out Samukele Kabini’s first half goal.
That draw left Galaxy sitting 11th on the log standings with 10 points, two behind Amakhosi who are finding the going tough under new coach Nasreddine Nabi.
Beganovic understood that they should have added more misery to Chiefs’ woes after holding on to their lead until stoppage time, but he was still pleased with his team’s effort.
“We were unlucky to concede a goal in the last minute, but we don’t complain. We want to keep going and continue to work like we’ve been working now,” said Beganovic on SuperSport.
“Yes, I know somewhere we deserved (all full) points. We have been training hard like we are playing. But again, my team played well. So, I want to give all credit to my players.
“From the first game, (we played well), and now it’s four in a row. We can’t lose, and we played well. So, I think all the credit should go to my players.”
One cannot help but feel for Galaxy – they had Chiefs where they wanted them as they defended well even when Chiefs pinned them for an equaliser in the second half.
The Rockets were let down by some poor decisions by goalkeeper Ira Tape who didn’t only fail to organise his defence well against set-pieces, but prematurely came off his line as well.
Tape was erratic that senior teammate Mpho Mvelase also had a go at him in the dying stage as if he sniffed that Chiefs would capitalise on the goalkeeper’s errors and get something out of the game.
But Beganovic still defended his lanky goalkeeper, saying they should have stayed alert especially when Chiefs threw the kitchen sink at them in search of the equaliser.
“We tried to close the game – we put one extra defender. But in the end, one cross led to a goal,” Beganovic explained.
“If you look at the 90 minutes, maybe it was better that the game finished 1-1 because Kaizer Chiefs attacked in the second half, and they were the better team. We just had a good first half.”
While Beganovic believes they’ve been decent since he took charge of the team, he could still finish the year on a high if they beat Royal AM away from home on December 29.
“We are going to face a difficult game against Royal AM in Durban, but we are going to have enough time to prepare for that game,” Beganovic said.
“We need to rest the team, refresh it and then prepare for that game. We are just going to continue the same way. We can’t lose. We just want to build our team the same way.”