Amakhosi suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to SuperSport United despite dominating proceedings and striking the woodwork on three occasions at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
With the only goal of the game having come on the counter attack, Komphela pointed out similarities between the game and their failure at the same stage of the MTN8 last season when they went down to Cape Town City, then coached by Matsatsantsa mentor Eric Tinkler.
"Congratulations to Eric again," Komphela said in an interview with SuperSport TV after the game. "He seems to have muti that works on me.
"[This was] almost a replica of the same fate we suffered in Cape Town against Cape Town City [in 2016 MTN8 quarter-final]. And typical of his [Tinkler] it was from a counter attack.
"With regard to the game there is very little we can say. You can't come up with an excuse here. This is football, the only proper explanation is to win. The players played well, you can't fault them. Good energy, creating chances - I don't know how many times we hit the post.
"There were 45,000 people here and there was good football and they enjoyed themselves but when they leave it is an 'eish' moment. I don't know - it wasn't good enough. We have to keep working and you can never give up."