Suva coach Babs Khan says strong counter-attacking ploy clicked for them in their 1-0 win against Rewa in the opening Group B match of the Rooster Chicken/Scoops Ice Cream Battle of the Giants tournament at Prince Charles Park in Nadi on Friday.
After a 0-0 draw at the break, Khan revealed that he instructed the players to trouble the Rewa defence in order to get the win.
“First half, Rewa played well. They adapted to the weather faster than us.”
“In the second half, we talked about how we were going to play the ball. We knew Rewa was just going on counter attacks and we had to stop that so when we won the ball we went on counter attacking.”
Khan, while acknowledging the players for putting up a good effort also mentioned the Whites fought tooth and nail trying to lift their performance after their campaign at the OFC Champion League in May.
“When we came back from the OFC, players were very tired and we had to do a lot of recoveries to get back into our rhythm and today we wanted to showcase it but the weather or the ground was too heavy.”
“It’s important for any coach to start on a winning note. Hats off to the players. They played well and stuck to the game plan.”
While many important lessons the Capital City boys took from the first match, he added the side will need to better its strike force and defence before their second match against Ba tomorrow.
“There are some set pieces that we are supposed to do which we did not follow and anyways it’s about football and pressure and how we sustain it.”
“Scoring is one area we really need to work on. It’s very important because there are so many opportunities we should have put in.”
“I haven’t seen Ba play in a month and they also have a new coach. I’ll have to watch the game at six o’clock to decide on how we will play them.”
Concrete Dynamic Limited/Rams Cleaning Services Suva will take on Rooster Chick Ba at 5pm on Saturday.
