Kaze On Ntwari’s Refusal To Be Subbed Off
Kaizer Chiefs coach Cedric Kaze has revealed that they will internally address goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari’s refusal to be substituted before the penalty shootout in their Carling Knockout loss against Stellenbosch.
Ntwari, who last played in November 2024, for his act, was unable to help Chiefs, who ended up losing 5-4 to Stellies at DHL Stadium on Sunday.
In the last minutes of extra time, the technical team wanted to substitute the Rwanda international for Bruce Bvuma, hoping that Bvuma could save penalties, but Ntwari refused to be subbed off and went on to save one penalty during the shootout.
“I believe those kinds of situations are something that we’re going to handle internally,” Kaze said.
“But he felt that he [Bvuma] was comfortable going on the penalties and helping the team. He was coming from a good intention; maybe this was not as good as possible to show me, but it’s something we’re going to handle internally.”
Amakhosi will now take a break due to the FIFA international, during which Ntwari will join his Rwanda national team to face Bafana Bafana in their last FIFA World Cup qualifier match.
Kaze believes that this break will help Chiefs redeem themselves after struggling since the September FIFA break.
“I believe that this is a break that is welcomed because the past few weeks, it’s 18 days playing six games and traveling to Angola, then every game has its pressure,” Kaze added.
“We never had time to work on everything that we could have worked on. But now we have time to set ourselves and work and get better combinations, and going forward to the next game of the CAF Confederation Cup.
“This break comes through good timing because we have seen what we need to work on, and everybody has had an opportunity to watch themselves.
“We got the opportunities, not one or two but many chances, and we also had possession and were defending well…
“But the problem is that we don’t score, we don’t kill the game when we have the opportunity.
“It’s those kinds of things we need to work on, and players need some rest because physically it was challenging to play many games.”
The Phefeni Glamour Boys will resume their campaign in the CAF Confederation Cup second preliminary round, with the first leg against AS Simba Kolwezi in Congo on 17 October, followed by the second leg in South Africa.
