Good Football, Not Boom, Boom

In the case of Luc Eymael when it comes to South African football, it’s never really out of sight, out of mind, for even after leaving these shores to go and coach Tala’ea El Gaish in Egypt, his name continued to feature in certain conversations. That can be a good or bad thing, depending on which side of the fence you sit. Not too much of a surprise, then, that he is back, this time to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a Black Leopards side that has not started the season as well as they would have liked. Does he have in his possession the magic wand that he seemed to possess during stints at the likes of Polokwane City and Free State Stars? What does he make of all that’s been recently said about him, mainly by fellow coach Steve Komphela? Soccer Laduma’s Beaver Nazo finds out from the 60-year-old Belgian with a sharp tongue.

- Beaver Nazo

Beaver Nazo: Luc who’s back!

Luc Eymael: Yeah, well, it happens everywhere in football – coaches come and go everywhere. As coaches, we can play the same system, but we cannot play it exactly the same way. Fortunately, I arrived and played two games before going to the FIFA break. Some of the players lacked fitness and tactical discipline, but we had three weeks to work on that. On top of that, we had a congested fixture (schedule), but the boys have a good mentality and they are always willing to learn. We won one and lost one of my first two games. We pushed Mamelodi Sundowns, even though we lost the game. I think we displayed good football for those who were watching. The own goal cost us a lot. Another thing is that we showed too much respect to Sundowns. We conceded silly goals there and we worked on that in the three weeks of the break. We had a very good reaction though and I think we should have scored. We are building unity in the team.

BN: Coach, the Telkom Knockout Last 16 game against Highlands Park was a case of ‘so near, yet so far’, as you lost 6-5 in the penalty shootout.