Though it was about as comprehensive a performance as their fans could hope for on Wednesday evening in their Betway Premiership win over AmaZulu, Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi said there was still room for improvement before he singled out Gaston Sirino for unadulterated praise.
Chiefs ran out 3-1 victors over their hosts at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, thanks to three first half strikes from Ranga Chivaviro, Sirino and Inacio Miguel inside the first 25 minutes.
Though AmaZulu bagged their first goal just after the half time break through Etiosa Ighodaro, Chiefs had already done enough to hold out for a fairly comfortable win.
“The first half was very good, but then in the second half they scored the goal very quickly. So that was really hard to keep maintaining after the score positively. We still have lots of things to build up on, but this is still a very positive result for us,” said Nabi, speaking through a translator.
“We’re still learning and we’re trying to keep building our bases. We have a lot of things to work on. It’s still just the second match, so it’s very much still in a construction phase. We still have a lot of fixtures to build on, so we need time.”
Kazier Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi on Gaston Sirino’s impact in the team, and his influence on young players like Mdu Shabalala, Mfundo Vilakazi and Samkelo Zwane.#GFMSports #BetwayPrem #KaizerChiefs pic.twitter.com/wdiskeIdWJ
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Sirino the star
Speaking about Sirino, who made an untouched run to the edge of the AmaZulu box before reeling off a strike which was fired into the top left corner of the net, Nabi paid special tribute to the winger.
“He’s one of the greatest examples of rage (burning desire), quality and positive impact on the entire squad.
“He has a positive impact on the entire team where if you think about players such as [Mduduzi] Shabalala, [Mfundo] Vilakazi or Samkelo [Zwane], he (Sirino) has a lot of desire to rub off on the rest of the team.
“He’s an example in terms of involvement when you look at his work rate not only in attack but also at how he runs back to defend.”