Even though he wasn’t there, Tiyani Mabunda knows what the mood in Zamalek’s changeroom was like after their 3-0 loss to Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg of the CAF Champions League final.
Four years ago, Mabunda was part of a Black Leopards side that lost 3-1 to Nigeria’s Warri Wolves in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup’s second round. The chances of Lidoda Duvha overturning that result and moving a step closer to the group stage looked bleak.
“We had to rise as a team in the second leg,” Mabunda said. “We came to South Africa and won 2-0. It was the best game, I think, we played as Leopards on the continent.
“We believed we could do it and we did. We knew we didn’t have our best game in Nigeria. It was tense in the changeroom after that loss. We told ourselves that this isn’t how we want to go out. We knew we would turn the result around after that conversation.”
Mabunda is on the other side now, plotting how to stop a Zamalek side driven to overturn a 3-0 loss. The White Knights will try to do that at a sold-out Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria tomorrow.
“It’s not easy to play against Mamelodi Sundowns twice. It’s been proven in a lot of games we've played domestically and on the continent.
“It’s difficult to accept defeat. The moment we lose a game, it hypes us up to make up for it in the next game. “We lost the (MTN8) final against (Bidvest) Wits and we told ourselves that we need to pull up our socks and win the next game. We did that. Now that Zamalek want to overturn the score, it won’t be easy for them just as it won’t be easy for us.
“It will be a very tense game. They will come out harder than they did in the last three games that we played against them.
“This match will be more physical. We are ready to withstand whatever they throw at us because they will be wary of what we can do.
“I know we'll score in Egypt. It’s difficult to play a game and not score. I believe we will win.”
The Brazilians held their first training session in Alexandria yesterday after the players were given Thursday off to recover from their long flight. It also didn’t help that they couldn’t get a training venue yesterday, something Zamalek should have provided them with.
Today Sundowns will train at the match venue where they will look to tame the White Knights tomorrow night at 8.30pm (SA time).
The thought of being an African champion excites Mabunda, who was deemed surplus to Sundowns’ needs at one point, sent on loan twice and then demoted to the reserve side.
He stomached all that, waited for his chance and made the most of it when he finally got his break.
“Being an African champion will change the way I think,” Mabunda said.
“We won the league and that changed how I play and think.
“We knew that after winning the league we had to go one step better. We had to win the continental competition.
“After winning the Champions League, we have to look at what more we can do because our coach pushes us. We can never do enough. If we score two goals, the next game we must score three.
“There’s always the next level. After winning the Champions League, there is the Club World Cup.
“We would want to do our best against the best teams in the world.”
Saturday Star