To say that City Kings – debutants in the ABC Motsepe League last season – gave a good account of themselves is certainly an understatement.
At one stage, coach Craig Rosslee’s team was in the pound position on course to win their Stream (A). However, Kings did not have the proverbial rub of the green and were denied by the eventual winner, Zizwe United – but there were enough positives, especially for the newbies to claim their rightful position in Cape football.
Despite this Rosslee indicated that he could not have been any prouder of his troops given the tough nature of the league due to the shorter format and split into two streams.
With his Kings outfit, being a year older and wiser, the former Ajax Cape Town, AmaZulu and Orlando Pirates’ mentor is expecting his team to make greater inroads this time around.
Rosslee conceded that, irrespective of his success and achievements as a coach on the highest level in SA football in the past, it was indeed a baptism of fire in their debut season in the Motsepe League.
“From my side I have learnt a lot of lessons in this league and every league that I have coached in. I have been in the NFD (National First Division), I was the Director of Football at Black Aces and at FC Cape Town, and I have coached in the PSL (Premier Soccer League) and was successful there,” Rosslee pointed out.
“But each league has different challenges, and it is a different way of playing and I’ve learnt quite some good and interesting lessons. It is a very route-one league and you have to find players that can adapt and apply themselves in this competition – and in there lies the conundrum.
“Because of the way the league is played – are we really teaching football? If you understand what I’m saying? It is a very direct route-one way of playing. From a football perspective, no one really plays football. There are one or two teams, like Zizwe, that try to play but everyone is interested in winning because obviously, they want to get promotion. It is a promotion-based league,” he added.
The City Kings mentor stressed that finding the perfect balance will be key to success in this cut-throat league.
“We try to find the balance between developing the youngsters from a holistic point of view to get them a career as a professional. And when I say professional, I’m talking about at the highest level in football. But then also we have to look as to why we are in Motsepe and that is to get what everyone is looking for and to gain promotion.
“Maybe there needs to be some sort of adjustment to the league because the one thing I can see is there are a lot of good players that are 23 and 24 years old – where do these players go? I found out that they are being recycled between the Motsepe clubs.” Rosslee added.
Rosslee confirmed that City Kings have had their first set of trials the past weekend just to gauge the talent and youngsters on offer that he wants to develop.
“We obviously have our own set-up, football structures here at the Portuguese club. With regards to that our under 19 side from the previous season’s Bayhill Cup, makes up our under 18 and senior teams in our LFA structure.
“So, we’ll be looking for players from there as well to bring into our Motsepe team. We will continue to have trials over the course of the next two weeks and give the youngsters the opportunity,” Rosslee concluded.
