Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has asked for patience from Masandawana as the club goes through some teething problems in their rebuilding phase, arguing that once the Brazilians are strong they will challenge for the grand slams.
Bafana BaStyle have a new-look attack after the departure of Khama Billiat and Percy Tau with Toni Silva, Phakamani Mahlambi, Jose Ali Meza and Lebohang Maboe taking over the baton. The Brazilians might not have been as ruthless as they usually are, but they aren’t far off the pace in the league race with nine points from five games.
“We are trying to prepare this team for the Champions League later this year,” Mosimane said.
“It’s very difficult and that’s why I tell Sundowns’ supporters that they must be a little bit patient with us because we have a new line of four people upfront who are new. We’ll get there, slowly. We are preparing for the Champions League but we have to use the league to prepare for the Champions League because you know what’s key for us – it’s the Champions League. We want to represent South Africa for a sixth year in a row because we can’t let the country down.”
“National agenda is important for us. We will play the top eight again next year, just like the Nedbank Cup and the Telkom Knockout. So you don’t have to worry much about those ones. You must worry about the big ones, the grand slams. There are tournaments and there are grand slams. We want the grand slams.”
Sundowns returned from Durban with four points from two matches. They beat Golden Arrows 1-0 on Wednesday after playing to a 3-3 draw with AmaZulu on Sunday.
“I know odds are a little bit against us,” Mosimane said. “It doesn’t look that nice. But we got four points out of six. It’s not easy to get that. We wanted to get maximum points but you’ve got to respect that AmaZulu played well to be honest. They deserved the draw. We scored four goals in two games.”
” We don’t look that convincing but if you really look at it, out of five games we played we kept three clean sheets. We conceded against Kaizer Chiefs and AmaZulu. AmaZulu dented our defensive record with the three goals they scored against us. We scored four goals and got four points from our time in Durban. I don’t think that’s bad for our supporters here.”
