Johnson dreams of Caf football despite Chiefs poor form

Despite the team’s recent poor form, Kaizer Chiefs caretaker coach Cavin Johnson has not given up on continental football next season.

The coach said his team, wallowing in eighth place with 30 points and just seven matches left, will push for the Premier Soccer League top three to qualify for either the Caf Champions League or Confederation Cup.

Chiefs have managed one victory in their past seven games and were stunned 2-0 by Chippa United at a sold-out 16,000-seater Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Saturday.

It was their second successive league defeat, coming after the 1-0 loss against Stellenbosch FC at the FNB Stadium on Tuesday.

Chiefs’ poor run is a huge concern for the club’s supporters — not just on their team’s aim of playing in Africa, but even qualifying for next season’s MTN8.

Ailing Chiefs are in their ninth season without a trophy in 2023-24.

Since reaching for the Champions League final in 2020, Amakhosi have been unable to qualify for Africa’s premium interclub competition, with Mamelodi Sundowns leading the race in that regard. The Brazilians, 2016 Champions League winners, regularly progress past the group stage and this weekend reached the semifinals again with their home leg win (3-2 on aggregate) win against Tanzania’s Young Africans on Friday.

But Johnson says it is too early for Chiefs fans to push the panic button with 21 points to play for, where a good run could see his side overtake the likes of Sekhukhune United, Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United and Stellenbosch. Chiefs are seven points adrift of third-placed Orlando Pirates, who occupy the last continental spot.

“Yes, it is a tall order, but we will plan until the fat lady sings because you don’t know what will happen to the other teams above us,” Johnson said. “We have to compete until the last, the league is at 30 games. Until that last game I don’t think we comment about whether we will play in Africa or not.”

Chiefs have lacked a player who they can depend on to shoulder scoring responsibilities upfront and conjure moments of brilliance in attack.

This was evident against Chippa as they created 18 chances but managed only three on target.

This difficulty in scoring and not having a talisman have affected their ability to win matches all season, and Johnson said Chiefs’ woes in attack have to be remedied if they were to make inroads in qualifying for continental football.

He said he and his coaching staff have to work on Chiefs’ mistakes being made in the final third by their existing players to avoid dropping out of the top eight.

“We have to do an analysis and show the players those moments and rectify how they can do better in those positions.”

Chiefs are out of the Nedbank Cup so not involved in this week’s quarterfinals. Their next match is against Richards Bay FC at King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban on April 20.