Baxter sees the positive side of cup defeat

Even though their MTN8 elimination means they must wait a little  longer to end the club’s six-year trophy drought, Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter sees no shame in losing on penalties to a club of Mamelodi Sundowns’ calibre.

Sundowns elbowed Chiefs out, beating them 2-1 on penalties in the quarterfinals at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria at the weekend.

Amakhosi came from two goals down to force a 2-2 stalemate. Peter Shalulile and Themba Zwane netted for the Tshwane giants, while Bernard Parker and Khama Billiat were on target for Chiefs. 

Baxter has since moved swiftly to quash the idea that losing the quarterfinal was a huge blow. Instead he emphasised the focus should be on coming from two goals down and losing on penalties to the league champions.

“You’re playing the [league] champions in the first round, you get back from 2-0 down to 2-2 in normal time,”  Baxter said. “I think if that was a league game, there wouldn’t be many complaining about that result.

“This being a cup game it goes into extra time and penalties, so that we have little control over. 

“In terms of the trophy, every tournament you enter, if you’re a serious professional club, you hope to win it and we desperately wanted to put the game to bed in penalties and go to the next round, but we didn’t.”

Baxter argued that the game could have been won by either side in extra time, lauding Downs’ ability to hold their nerve in the shoot-out.

“The never-say-die attitude is something we want to have for the entire season as a characteristic in Chiefs and I would be disappointed if we fail to have it. Definitely, they [his boys] deserve a pat on the back for their commitment ... to scratch and claw their way back into the game.”

Chiefs play TS Galaxy in their opening league game of the season at the Mbombela Stadium on Sunday (5pm).