Johannesburg - The shadows of Zamalek, Enyimba and ES Setif – before one even looks at their achievements on the continent – tower over Mamelodi Sundowns.
Sundowns struggled to put together a decent number of baby steps to reach the group stage of the CAF Champions League this year. They fell flat on their backsides in the second round just as they looked promising, losing by an away goal to AS Vita.
Luckily for Sundowns, CAF picked them up off the floor and into the last eight when after the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Vita was disqualified for fielding a suspended player.
The Brazilians return to training today in preparation for Setif in the opening match of their group stage campaign next Saturday in Algeria ( kickoff 11.15pm, SA time). They welcome Enyimba at the end of the month.
It will take some doing for Sundowns to advance to the last four against three teams who have won the CAF Champions League, while their best performance was reaching the final in 2001. But it’s because of these odds stacked against the Pretoria club that Teko Modise believes they will surprise the continent.
“It’s an opportunity for Sundowns to play against good teams in the group stage, which is something that’s been our dream,” Modise said. “Now that we are here, we have bigger ambitions to make it further than the group stage.
“We are the underdogs in the group so that gives us space to breath. We are going to do our homework, try and understand how they play and what to do at this stage because it’s a new experience for us.
“We (this current squad) haven’t been here before. We just hope that the form we had in the league can carry us through.”
The Sundowns players, having blown away their rivals to win the PSL this past season, who weren’t on national team duty have had just close to two weeks’ rest.
How they balance not having much of a pre-season will play a huge role in how they perform in defending their league title, as they will return to continental football again next year.
Their last game in Ghana against Medeama might mean nothing now that Sundowns are in the group stage of the Champions League, but they learned some valuable lessons, especially how to stay calm even when a lot of things are thrown their way.
“The game that we lost in Ghana was a game that we shouldn’t have lost,” Modise said. “We learned from that. We know that home games are very important and that an away goal is very important.
“No matter how difficult the circumstances are. We will rectify the mistakes that saw us get eliminated which will make us a better team going forward, probably reach the semi-finals and maybe even the final.” - Cape Times