Cape Town — Amakhosi veteran Itumeleng Khune is at peace with the club's decision "to manage" him despite enjoying limited time between the sticks, as Brandon Petersen and Bruce Bvuma were the favoured goalkeepers.
When coach Arthur Zwane spoke to the goalkeepers in the squad, he told the 35-year-old Khune: "At your age, we'll manage you. There will be times when you won't play at all."
At Monday's press conference, the media's line of questioning was centred around Saturday's soul-crushing 3-2 defeat against Golden Arrows in Polokwane. Khune put on a brave face and said teammates were ready to shrug off the setback and work towards a victory on Saturday's Soweto Derby at the FNB Stadium.
"In every game, we play to play to win, unfortunately, the plan didn't go the way we wanted it to go," said Khune, who had only just turned 20 when he made his Soweto Derby debut in 2007. The hugely entertaining encounter ended in a 2-2 draw which was an excellent way for him to sample South Africa’s biggest football show.
"We go into every game with a mentality to win, and that won't change. We need to prepare the whole week for the derby. We'll go in with a plan that we’ll execute on match day.“
In a long career that has at times been blighted by injury, he has gone on to make 27 Soweto Derby appearances. On occasion he has been back in the starting line-up at Naturena this season, so could yet add to that tally on Saturday.
"There can only be 11 players on the field and nine on the bench," said Khune, who explained that it was not easy to crack a spot in the run-on XI.
"There is healthy competition at Chiefs and that's the way it should be."
Petersen will likely be named in Chiefs' starting line-up on Saturday. Before Sunday's 5-goal thriller, he kept three successive clean sheets and made some excellent saves despite being beated three times.
IOL Sport