Rivaldo Coetzee Proving His Worth in Midfield
The goal Mamelodi Sundowns scored against Kaizer Chiefs on Thursday 27 August, was a thing of beauty, my jaw dropped as I was peeling potatoes for supper; the excellent backheel from Themba Zwane and the clinical finish from Gaston Sirino were a thing of delight but that passage of play doesn’t happen without Rivaldo Coetzee.
If you track back in that play, it starts of with Rivaldo Coetzee playing a diagonal ball out wide to Anele Ngcongnca, Sundowns then lose the ball and he recovers it and processed to fizzing an accurate pass to Temba Zwane at the perfect weight allowing the midfielder to do his magic leading to the goal that took them level on point with Chiefs. The goods he produced on Thursday’s game, is there reason why Coetzee is playing ahead of the likes of Andile Jali and Tiyani Mabunda. That decision obviously is one that has not sat well with the masses but Mosimane has stuck by his guns and backed the man born in Kakamas.
“Sometimes people do not like him and I do not know why don’t like him. He is an accurate passer with the right and left foot and he wins headers in the midfield, brings the ball back. But it takes time, maybe people will start realising why we play him sometimes. Rivaldo is an unbelievable player, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves,” Mosimane told the media in a virtual press on 8 August after his sides win against Bidvest Wits.
The Mamelodi Sundowns head coach revealed that for “Riva” to move to midfield it was due to the potential Manqoba Mngqithi saw in him. Only fair to say that Coetzee is in safe hands when he has a coach of Manqoba Mngqithi believing in him, the man has fine tuned some of the finest midfielders in South African football, namely Kagisho Dikgacoi and Thanduyise Khuboni.
“On Rivaldo, you must thank coach Manqoba because he is the one who fought for Rivaldo to play central midfield. The free-kicks that he delivers, he whips them in, he has the technique. But Riva needs to come out of his shell, he is not a player who expresses himself a lot and that is what we are encouraging, we ant him to play more,”
The positional change is something that the former Ajax Cape Town man has welcomed and has made the transition seem effortless similar to how rappers Beanie Sigel from the streets to the fame.
“I actually enjoy playing midfield. I hope I can continue there and maybe have a future in that position. It was a bit tricky in the beginning, I wasn’t used to people pressing me from behind. I was used to seeing everything on the pitch and that made it easier for me to attack space.
But in midfield you have to think quicker and always scan so you know what’s happening around you, and know what to do with the ball before you even receive it,” said Rivaldo Coetzee to the Mamelodi Sundowns website.
Following the heart crushing disappointment of a failed move to Glasgow Celtics and a year without playing football, its warming to seeing Coetzee playing football and imposing his matured, cool and calm demeanour on the pitch. A move to Europe may be on the cards with the way he is playing, well his coach intends on doing so.
