Mamelodi Sundowns’ coach Pitso Mosimane is happy that the Brazilians kept a clean sheet in Kigali against Rayon Sports, even though he was disappointed that they couldn’t train on the match venue due to power failure.
Despite their training session at Amahoro Stadium cut short a day before the match due to power failure, Sundowns brushed aside those antics and kept a clean sheet against a good offensive side. The Brazilians have to beat Rayon at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday next week to book a place in the group stage of the Champions League for a third time in a row – something no other South African team has done before.
“We don’t like to make excuses,” Mosimane said. “On Tuesday we didn’t train on the match venue. It wasn’t nice. It’s not good for your country. It’s not good for football. You need to give the opponents an opportunity to train on the match venue because when you come to my country, imagine I do the same and switch off the lights? I am not saying that you guys switched off the lights. I hope you understand. Imagine you have to train on the last day and the lights are switched off? What are you going to say about me? It’s not good for football. I think that you have a lovely country and a lovely team but you need to get rid of these things. You have a good team to win. You don’t need to switch off the lights and play mental games. But we have been in the Champions League for a long time. We don’t care about such things and they don’t affect us. It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it. Just fix your house. Don’t switch lights off. It doesn’t work.”
Mosimane is expecting an even tougher battle in the second leg that will decide who goes to the group stage.
“It was tough even here,” Mosimane said. “Football is like that. It’s tough. But I don’t know how Rayon Sports play away. I am happy that we didn’t sit back. We came here to play. We don’t sit at the back. We always go forward to play, even if we play away. It’s our culture because if you sit at the back you invite pressure and the goal will come. It was a tough game. I like the atmosphere. The fans were good, peaceful and no issues. It was a nice environment and I am happy that we kept a clean sheet.”
The Brazilians have to temporarily put aside the Champions League and focus on the Nedbank Cup with a date against ABC Motsepe League club EC Bees on Tuesday at Loftus Versfeld before taking on Rayon Sports in the second leg.
