Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane was neither pleased or upset with the performance from his charges after the away goalless draw with Ivorian giants, Asec Mimosa.
Jingles however was critical of the poor state of the pitch at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan.
The Brazilians struggled to play their normal football in a bumpy pitch that had a number of patches. The draw however kept Sundowns’ dream of reaching the quarterfinals alive. Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca and Nigeria’s Lobi Stars also played to a goalless draw which sees Sundowns and Wydad tied on seven points. Bafana BaStyle are in charge of their own fate with two games to go in the group stage.
“The conditions are difficult for anybody to come here,” Mosimane said in the post match press conference.
“I don’t think that Wydad will survive here. They’re also technical, they will struggle with the ball bouncing. The humidity will also be a challenge for them. It was too hot for us. We survived. I think that they’ll beat Wydad, and Asec can also win in Lobi Stars.”
Group A is meticulously poised with Sundowns and Wydad on seven points while Asec and Stars are on four points with two matches to go. Sundowns’ remaining two matches will see them host Stars at home and then travel to Casablanca to take on Wydad.
“We couldn’t come to Asec and play like we’re intelligent people,” Mosimane said. “I said it before in the prematch press conference that we come with respect to Asec. But I always knew – because I watched their game in Morocco, I watched their game against Lobi Stars and I also watched the game we played against them – once or twice they make mistakes at the back and give the ball away”
“So we knew that they have wrong passes sometimes at the back and it’s dangerous. But on the opposite side they are very good on set-pieces. We were fortunate that they had a striker who was suspended, because if he had played, they are strong upfront. We knew that we had to monitor their attack well. If you do that well, then you’re okay.”
Half a loaf is better than nothing
Mr Pitso please my coach can you please play Laffor on the position were you are playing Maboa ,than goals are coming
We went there just to get a draw you could see the way we were playing but anyway its better than a lost.
Our players sometimes are selfish forgetting that a team also win if you pass your teammate whom on good position to score,that ball Themba balooned over the bar if he gave it to Tade for sure it would be a good goal you can watch it Dawanas if you don’t believe me and my fear Lobi Stars will be tough for us I saw them yesterday they are a gud side,Kby forever
Spot on member, I think Mshishi was selfish , and by the way for the entire match he was not on the game ,he was lucky that he was not substituted, we should have put in Laffor in his place, the technical team was spot on in terms of substituting Sirino who also was not in the game at all, losing balls etc. However I understand , the pitch was heavy and the worst was the strong HEAT that was unbearable for the players, however this does not justify the failure of not subsitituting when a player does not contribute positively on the game no matter how excellent that player used to be in terms of his perforamance.
Regarding Lebo Maboe, I think the boy is good and is hardworking and we have a gold in him, however some members do not see the hard work, the closing of spaces and the creation of spaces the boy makes, the assists , the boy runs a lot and covers a lot of KM alone. Some of us, only look for goals in a player, which is unfortunate but I understand some of us never played football.Many members here were against us when some of us were asking the coach to consider playing Mshishi and Zungu before Teko yet the latter was not doing much on the field as other players were doing the spade work for him. Even now Maboe , Mshishi and Mabunda do a lot of spade work for other players, players such as Sirino who are more good at attacking than defending , etc. Maboe is an attacking player but he also does the defending business and presses the opposition defenders.
1 point is better than nothing,but we gave away a chance to qualify right-way yesterday ! Now we still have to fight in the last two games against tough opponents. We now have to put up best performance against Lome Stars here at home and do the same against Wydad away. We need at least two points from the last two games to get through,looks easy neh!But we have to fight for it.We have strikers now coach,you can play Morena in his correct position now.Our counterattacks were not effective yesterday,we need to improve that when we play away,it helps push the opposition a bit back. I am confident of a home win against Wydaad away and Lome at home……………Our group is still open, one slip-up might cost us!
Congratulations! Its always a struggle at this level, grinding a result of that nature away in those conditions is fair enough. You can see all teams especially in our group mean business, tit for tat ,no team donates anything, they all fight, all make mistakes, the SA stadiums must not deceive our players, this World Cup standard, they must adapt to all kinds , as long as they are in this journey, the heat is normal,Tshwane is hot, Limpopo is very hot, so lets go and play at Thohoyandou stadium and get used to the heat, its part of the preparation to the mind to adapt quickly to any environment. We are a travelling team, year in year out, conditions especially those that we have got no influence on or less lets take them positively. Missing goals can not be mixed with those factors because even in our local stadiums we are used to watch it happen. You miss because of the wrong techniques to execution,lack of composure, panic etc. It happens in soccer. We must just regroup, prepare for nothing less than 3 points against Lobi stars.That is the most critical game that can put safe and stop the struggle.Its tough but it must be done well, so well in the first 45 minutes and stay focused till the final whistle.
We just need to beat stubborn Lobi stars at home and then we are off to quarter finals.Lets send Brockie and Ngoma plus cash to Supersport and get Mokoena and Modiba.We also need one tough central defender (Justice Chabalala) because we have only one strong defender (Lebusa),Nascimento and Adrense are soft and too weak,attackers are not scared of them instead they toy around with them.
Well played under the difficult conditions. Sometimes going all out for a win away, you end up losing the game. We’re on track to qualify for the knockout stages. Well done to the technical team and players
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Well done Masandawana,a point is what we really need in an away game of such climatic conditions.At home our boys will do wonders especially if we really need three points to qualify before meeting Wydad
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishmen from Sundowns Top fan
let me thank the Technical team,the fitness team,the medical team our hungry boys and the whole yellow nation,we went to Asec looking for a point and 3 points could be a bonus. I think our boys are going in the right direction,yes we are missing goals which is a sign that we are going there.some members don’t understand the role of Lebohang Maboe.yes he is not perfect at this stage but he is going there. watch this boy.
Lebo will be the player of the year next season watch the space
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
Maboe is a gud player and he shows something…and I believe in him…but now we need results…we need experience player in that position to give results,I wonder if my coach can play Laffor there pls and c if we can’t get results.He doesn’t hv speed but experience….kby ngenkani..
Please play Laffor on away games
Maboe yes is gud but he didn reach to standard to start all game he miss lot even standard just on average at Pmburg was on fire may be Pitso use last season rating who knows
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Our coach preaching Mushishi, how can he substitute him? Him n Serino don’t pass other teammates.
Umnyango has done it again. An own goal from the goalkeeper
Our main problem is for our coach to be brave enough to replace early,Tade looked tired the whole of 2nd half but he waited until 80th and 90 th minutes to make substitute.If only he was valiant enough like Micho and Mazinyo we would way ahead on the league stand.Mazinyo put Billiat on the bench and Katsande in the stands and Micho replaces a defender for a striker when things are not going well.Coach next time gamble a little,is the same to draw 3 games and loose 2 games and win 1 game,you only get 3 points.All is not lost but we have put ourselves under unnecessary pressure,hungry players like Mahlambi should be given fair chance.What I also notice is that we don’t treat all games equally,look at how we played against both Mimosa and Wydaad.If we don’t chance this trend of selecting games we will lose both league and CAF cup like w did with the past 3 trophies and end the season trophy less.Coach we cannot blame you for doing positive things even if we lose.Amen.
Onyango has cost us three points mxm
Pitso is a coach without short term plans and Long term plan is relying on luck. your can’t claiming to be on the process of building the team when you busy signing 30 years old players it tasn’t make sense.
Hard luck boys, we made things very difficult for ourselves, in the early stages, I thought the game is in the bag. The boys were not sharp as in the recent games. I expected an even better performance after they’ve rested so much since their last game. Maybe playing games in short space of times sharpens us. Any way, all not lost. Sorry keeper, but you have committed unusual blunders lately, not sure what’s going
Yellow nations, what did I said last time regarding what Onyango done against Highlands park? This guy is going to cost us the league because what I realised is that he thinks that he owns the position.
Dennis Onyango has been finished for long time, he was a good GK but not anymore, look how Magic GK performed on Sunday, he can fly and very flexible. Look how he cost us yesterday.
All sundown’s GKs are old except Ngobeni who cant be utilised because he is not a favourite or not bribing Pitso. We are still going to lose more due to Onyango and Pitso.
Pitso favours Umnyango because of the height, the same reason he signed Riyaad Pieterse, the keeper who dismally failed at both Zebbies and SSU. Ngobeni is overlooked because of the height, a fact that even Pitso alluded to
@Dalom, If that is the case sandawana Pitso is wrong and I start believing what mentioned by Silva” You sign the players because you don’t want them to play against Downs” that is madness. He signed Ngobeni knowing he is shorty, he cannot be discriminated and not use him because of his height. He better let him go. Khune of Zebbies is still excellent being shorty. His favourites are getting older and older.
I think there is a serious problems at the club, I think the president make mistake by giving the coach twomuch powers,is dictating everything, monopolies the team.
We were all proven yester night how useless Onyango and Pitso are. Thela is a good keeper and Mwene too. Mweene is way better than Onyango who is getting game time because he is favored by his father Pitso. It is now the right time that Onyango should be rested and Mweene be given the starting line up. Tired of Pitso’s favouritism
You are so awesome! I don’t suppose I have read
something like this before. So wonderful to find somebody with original thoughts on this issue.
Half a loaf is better than nothing, a bird in the bag is better than nine flying. That’s soccer! what shall we say, had we won the game there would peace and no complaints , if we had lost this game it would be chaos . Polokwane City is no longer a small team, l second that part of keeping the momentum of Caf on PSL, the intensity must be the same, the attitude with our guys must always be right, trusting no team and believing they all mean business. Why is Polokwane City always giving us problems? its because of the right attitude they put towards us. They have done it with different couches. Look at how George Chikova performs against Sundowns, he was actually the difference between the two teams, he was easily the man of the match if we were to be fair enough. The boys tried to do it right but that guy made sure the papers write a different story altogether. We lost a win there because we have pressure to be on top of the log, that pressure was double on the players, the mistakes you saw were pressure bound, guys failing to be composed to pick a spot and place the ball. Its tough in there, but it was good. Now when we take on Wits on their back yard will be a marvel to watch. Last time when players complained about stadiums in the Caf , l disputed that and said it does not carry water for me because we see same things happening on our grounds. Our goal margins are still not convincing enough, Cape town city ,scores better margins as if they have better strikers than we have, its the determination they put ,they believe it can be done, possibly they know what makes Benni happy. The two encounters coming are as good as Way dad. ALL THE BEST
I have said it and will say it again… Pitso and his favourites are killing us. I wish we as supporters can revolt again so that Pitso goes or changes his stinking attitude. Onyango, Mabunda, Kekana for example.