Mental Block Hits Cape Town City

Cape Town City coach Diogo Peral believes a prolonged winless streak stretching back to January has created a significant mental hurdle for his team.

City suffered another defeat on the road, losing 1-0 to Richards Bay in their Betway Premiership match at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi on Friday night.

An impressive strike from Thulani Gumede secured the only goal of the game for the home side, curling a shot from the edge of the box past Darren Keet. This victory ended Richards Bay’s two-game losing streak.

For City, this loss extends their winless run to 13 matches across all competitions since their victory against the same Bay side at home in January.

This dire form is why Peral is the third coach to take charge of City this season. The club parted ways with Eric Tinkler in December, and Muhsin Ertugral was also let go in March after managing 14 matches, recording three wins, three draws, and eight losses.

Peral, who previously served as assistant coach under both sacked managers, has overseen three matches, losing two and drawing the other.

“Mentally, it is tough to be right now,” admitted Peral to Sportswire after the game. 

“You got to try to work out where you next win is going to come from, and it makes it difficult because you are playing games where the guys are doing well, but they can’t get the results. 

“Now, we have to pick them up again and make them believe that they can go and do it in the next game [against Mamelodi Sundowns at home on 4 May].  

“Like I said in the previous interview, this is a tough group of guys. 

“They recover quickly in the week, they get back in, they are trying their best. In a game, you need a goal to at least get something to go your way, which hasn’t happened a lot for us.”  

Cape Town City currently sit in 14th position in the Betway Premiership table, having accumulated just 24 points after 26 matches. They have played three more games than 15th-placed SuperSport United, who have 23 points.

Furthermore, City have only secured one away win this season, which was against Chippa United in December. Their challenging task of avoiding relegation is made even more difficult by their current form and struggles on the road.

“Away games are proving really tough for us,” said Peral.

“The home games that are left, we are playing against a really good opposition. But we have to believe.  

“The ones that we play are difficult places to go – Richards Bay at home they are doing well, it is a tough place to come, and we must go Polokwane [against Polokwane City on 17 May], that is also a tough place to go. 

“But we can’t take these places and say they are difficult; we have to make it happen there. I thought today [Friday] we did everything to make it happen and the goal did not go in.”