Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach Alex Heredia has explained why he will not pick Daniel Akpeyi for today’s CAF Champions League final between Kaizer Chiefs and Al Ahly.
Kaizer Chiefs technical team will have tough time deciding who should be in goal in what is arguably the biggest game in the club’s history.
Bruce Bvuma produced an outstanding display for the first-leg win in the semi-final against Raja Casablanca, while Akpeyi also impressed in the second leg which secured Chiefs’ first ever final appearance.
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But Heredia explained why Akpeyi will not be in goal if he is given the chance to pick who will man the post for the South African giants.
“If I am the goalkeeper coach for Stuart Baxter, I will go for a little bit of experience,” Heredia tells KickOff.com.
“But for any other game I would use probably Bruce Bvuma. Not because I have a soft spot for Bruce, I believe in Bvuma. If we give opportunity to Bvuma to play he will be another (Itumeleng) Khune.
“But honestly speaking, and this is my pure opinion. I don’t go for a foreign goalkeeper in this particular occasion. Why? Because we have a local quality. The only reason I put Akpeyi out of the picture is, Bvuma, very strong, played few games very well.
“Khune, large experience he played thousands of games and so that be, if you ask for my opinion ‘Go for local experience’, and on this particular case it’s Khune.
“You see we don’t know what’s going on right now inside the camp. We don’t know if Khune is training, if he is doing well..we don’t know. We guessing from outside. So as an outsider I will go for local experience. If neither, I can play with Bvuma no problem.
“In his last game against Wydad Casablanca he did very well. He kept the team in the game. Akpeyi also. But if you have two local goalkeepers and a foreign goalkeeper of the same quality, I will go for the local.”
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COMMENTS
jealousy go kill you.
With this foolish reason Kaizer might kiss champions league good bye.
If I were Akpeyi I will ask them to start their local goalkeepers…
Instead of saying I will go for the best of the 3, typical African says I will go for nationality. That is where failure starts from. That is why we have remained where we are.
Dr. Drey, I agree it’s an African problem, but the South Africans have taken it to another level. They are well known for their hatred for foreigners and their jealousy of Nigerian footballers.
Years ago, I read a comment from a South African coach who said that when he wanted to motivate his players, he would stir up their jealousy by reminding them how well Nigerian footballers were doing.
Xenophobia and South Africa are birds that flick together.