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Da Gama Blasts Players For Repeated Errors

  • January 15, 2025
  • 3 min read
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Da Gama Blasts Players For Repeated Errors

Magesi coach Owen da Gama has lamented his players’ inability to correct repeated errors. 

This after the former Orlando Pirates coach watched his team lose 1-0 to AmaZulu FC at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday.  

Bongani Zungu’s solitary strike secured victory for the visitors, leaving Magesi rooted to the bottom of the Betway Premiership table with only seven points from 12 matches. 

The defeat, their seventh consecutive league game without a win, comes in sharp contrast to their sensational Carling Knockout Cup triumph over Mamelodi Sundowns last month.  

Da Gama, brought in to rescue the struggling side, delivered a scathing assessment of his players’ performance. 

“To teach players new things, it’s quite easy, but to get rid of the bad habits, that is where the challenge is,” he said. 

“That’s number one. Number two, if a player makes this mistake – I watched the Carling Black Label game against Orlando Pirates (in the first round), the same player makes the same mistake. You can’t make the same mistake.” 

The veteran coach also criticized his midfielders for their failure to implement defensive strategies they had practiced during training. 

“I told the midfielders to close down people, we’ve been training to put pressure on the ball. But if you step back—Zungu had three or four touches before the shot, and people are just standing, marking nobody. You should close down the guy, and that’s what we’ve been working on,” he said. 

With the January transfer window open, da Gama hinted at the need for reinforcements to help the team fight its way out of relegation danger. 

“The team definitely needs strengthening, there is no doubt about it,” he said.  

“We need to bring in some players, and I think the management realise that as well. We need to get soldiers in, people that are going to fight for you. You’ve got to fight out of this situation; you play out of it.”

Magesi’s next league fixture pits them against an aggrieved Mamelodi Sundowns side on 22 January, a daunting prospect considering the Brazilians will be eager to avenge their shock loss in the Carling Knockout Cup final. 

For Da Gama, it’s a baptism of fire at the Limpopo-based club. Whether his tough-love approach will galvanize his squad remains to be seen.  

For now, the once-victorious Carling Knockout Cup champions remain trapped in a battle for survival. 

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Nkanyiso Mchunu

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