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The Team of Choice twice needed penalty shootouts to reach the Telkom Knockout final, but have struggled with spot-kicks in league games
Maritzburg United coach Eric Tinkler feels crowd pressure could have led to his players missing penalty kicks in their Premier Soccer League (PSL) games including during last weekend’s 1-1 draw with leaders Kaizer Chiefs.
Although Maritzburg managed to halt Chiefs’ trailblazing run of eight consecutive league wins following the draw, midfielder Daylon Claasen missed a second half spot-kick that could have handed Tinkler’s men victory.
Maritzburg navigated their way into the Telkom Knockout final by eliminating Bidvest Wits and Highlands Park via penalty shootouts, but they have carved themselves a reputation of being poor penalty takers in league games.
Striker Judas Moseamedi missed penalty against Black Leopards in a PSL match in August and Martizburg went on to lose 1-0.
After that, on-loan forward Jeremy Brockie struck his penalty off target against Chippa United in his debut game in September although Maritzburg went on to win 1-0.
“He [Moseamedi] missed the last he took… yeah it’s difficult Jeremy missed, but I always look at first and foremost when we practise them in training it’s difficult to recreate the pressure a situation that you’ve found yourself in front of this massive crowd,” Tinkler was quoted as saying by Far Post.
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Tinkler thinks Moseamedi had no confidence to take the penalty against Chiefs because his miss against Black Leopards.
“So in training it’s very, very easy you know but I look at the guys who are confident enough to fetch the ball and want to go take it and I think in all cases that was the scenario. Jeremy did it, Judas did it and now Daylon you know, I don’t think Judas would have wanted to take it because of his past experience.”
After sharing spoils with Chiefs, Maritzburg are placed eighth on the log.
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