Sundowns have ‘paid their school fees’
The north African bug has bitten coach Pitso Mosimane so much that he started his post-match press conference on Saturday after Mamelodi Sundowns beat Wydad Casablanca 1-0 with shukran (thank you in Arabic).
Once he remembered that he was in Pretoria and not Casablanca, he laughed. It was easy for Mosimane to forget where he was – north Africa has become his playground since the Brazilians became one of the big boys in continental football. He is also revered in those parts, so much so that Egypt’s biggest TV station ON TV asked him to be an analyst during the Africa Cup of Nations. Mosimane is also among four African coaches who were invited by Caf to be part of the first batch of coaches studying towards the inaugural Caf Pro Licence. Mosimane can now also boast to be the first South African coach whose team has gone unbeaten in the group stage of the Champions League.
“It’s good to finish on top of the log, that’s what we wanted,” Mosimane said. “It’s a positive change for the team in the Champions League. We are growing slowly with experience. We tend to understand the tournament a little bit more now, we are no longer naive. Before we were just going in with the energy and wanted to win at all costs, but we paid our school fees and now we know how to play Champions League.”
The win over Wydad continued Sundowns’ good run against north African sides. The Brazilians have faced almost all the big north African clubs and they have held their own against them, troubling them with their skill and pace. Sundowns’ brightest hour came at the expense of a north African team when they beat Egypt’s Zamalek to win the 2016 Champions League. Sundowns’ most commanding performance, the 5-0 drubbing of Caf’s Club of the Century Al Ahly in last season’s quarter-final first leg, is further proof of how much they have the edge over north African clubs. They will have to rely on that information in this season’s quarter-finals as they will face either Zamalek, Al Ahly or Morocco’s Raja Casablanca all of whom finished second in their groups. The draw
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