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| Mark Haskins |
The first 45 minutes saw Cosmos on the back-foot for the majority of the half as Chiefs out-passed them in the middle of the park.
The Amakhosi made a quick start and created a chance on goal in only the ninth minute when Bernard Parker met a right wing cross from Tlou Molekwane. The Chiefs striker did well to rise above his marker and head the ball goalwards, but Avril Phali denied the attacker with a great save diving to his right to palm the ball away from goal.
Chiefs came closest to scoring in the 14th minute when a corner-kick resulted in a goalmouth scramble inside the Cosmos box. Dominic Isaacs was on the end of the chaos inside the box, but he toe-poked his effort onto the crossbar from six-yards out.
Six minutes later and the Phefeni Glamour Boys were pestering the Cosmos goal again, but again Phali denied them any glory when he flung himself across the goal to tip over a 25-yard free-kick from Keegan Ritchie.
Thereafter, Jomo Sono got word to his players and they began to defend in numbers, getting all 11 players behind the ball, and looked to hit on the counter-attack.
Consequently, Chiefs struggled to break down a stubborn defence and were unable to create any more chances on goal in the first half.
Instead, Cosmos came close to unlocking the deadlock in the 38th minute when a slip by Isaacs allowed Matthew Rusike to get behind the Amakhosi defence. The attacker, however, wasted the opportunity as he fired his shot straight at Itumeleng Khune.
The second half saw Chiefs in the ascendency yet again, but they couldn’t find the right final ball to break down the Cosmos defence.
They did come close to breaking the deadlock in the56th minute when Ritchie tested the hands of Phali in a very similar way to his free-kick in the first half. Again Ritchie curled the ball around the defensive wall, and again Phali denied him with an acrobatic save.
Chiefs continued to press forward and in their hast to find a goal left themselves exposed to the counter attack and were duly punished by Cosmos in the 75th minute.
Mark Haskins found himself behind the Chiefs defence and with only the keeper to beat he made no mistake firing the ball through the legs of Khune to give his side the lead, 1-0.
Chiefs, though, quickly hit back through Lehlohonolo Majoro eight minutes later when he too broke the off-side trap and found himself in a one-on-one situation with the keeper. The striker showed his composure, though, and fired the ball past a stranded Phali, 1-1.
That set up a tense final couple of minutes as Chiefs went in search of the winner while Cosmos tried to hand onto the draw.
In the end the game ended all square and Vermezovic was clearly unhappy with the point.
Source: Sport.iafrica.com
Tags : Chiefs, Kaizer Chiefs, chiefs vs cosmos, jomo cosmos, lehlohonolo majoro, mark haskins,pls south africa
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