Gavin Hunt is clearly the glass is half full kind of guy. Why else would the SuperSport United coach still be optimistic about his team’s chances of reaching the quarter-final of the CAF Confederation Cup when they’ve lost all three matches?
Matsatsantsa a Pitori go in to the second half of their mini-league phase propping up Group D after defeats to Future FC, USM Alger and Al Hilal Benghazi. But Hunt was upbeat as he anticipated tonight’s clash with Libya’s Benghazi at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.
“Seven points can get you through,” the multiple championship-winning coach said at the pre-match media conference at the venue yesterday afternoon.
That he is confident they can get those points in their final three matches, when they failed to get a single point in the first three, is because Hunt believes they were good for the victories earlier on.
‘We have the chance to beat them’
“The game we lost here against the Algerian team (USM) – a top, top side – we could have won it. We hit the post and got the ball cleared off the line. And even the two away matches, we could have won them and now that we will have them (Benghazi and Modern Future) here at home, we have a chance to beat them.”
It sounded more like he was just saying what a man in his position has to say – especially when he again lamented the fact that he just does not have a squad sizeable enough to be competitive on many fronts and reiterated that he’s more focused on the domestic front.
“We don’t have the squad to compete, but we got to do what we got to do. We’ve done well in the domestic league and we could have been very, very closer (to runaway leaders and defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns, whom they trail by seven points, having played three more matches than the Brazilians).
“Domestically is where we need to keep our focus. We cannot get ourselves in trouble like the club was many years ago when they nearly got relegated after getting into the final.”
Not their first rodeo
SuperSport reached the final of the same competition back in 2017 but lost 2-1 to TP Mazembe. But while they did not have a brilliant season they were far from almost getting the chop, as they finished in seventh place.
He is pleased, though, that the team is gaining “mileage and experience”, both of which he feels will be of great value to the club in future.
“We will definitely be a better side after this campaign. We are learning a lot from this.
“When you play in CAF, you learn how to play the game because game intelligence is very big in CAF. And all these young kids and even the experienced players are learning how to manage the game and how to handle the game.”
Fresh from losing 2-1 at Benghazi, they will want to exact revenge while the pain of defeat is still fresh and Hunt’s belief that they should have won in Libya has him chomping at the bit ahead of the clash that kicks off at 9pm.
The come-from-behind 2-1 DStv Premiership win over Moroka Swallows thereafter has no doubt inspired them for the continental assignment.
Win on Wednesday and hope will spring eternal that they can produce what would be a turnaround of epic proportions and progress to the knockout stages despite having lost all three opening matches.