Pitso challenges the chasing pack

Ask anyone whether Mamelodi Sundowns have what it takes to retain the Absa Premiership and the answer is a resounding yes. Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Ask anyone whether Mamelodi Sundowns have what it takes to retain the Absa Premiership and the answer is a resounding yes. Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Published Aug 23, 2016

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Ask anyone whether Mamelodi Sundowns have what it takes to retain the Absa Premiership and the answer is a resounding yes. Even the other title challengers for the 2016/17 season, which kicks off tonight, would have to admit that the Brazilians are somewhat favourites for yet another championship - they are that good.

Pitso Mosimane, the Sundowns coach who has won two league titles since his arrival at the club in December 2012, remains modest about his hard-to-beat side, but knows he has set the bar so high that it is almost unnecessary to do any tinkering. Who can blame him after the Chloorkop outfit won the championship with two games to spare and still went on to achieve a record points haul (a total of 71) at the end of a stellar campaign?

Sundowns will be missing from a list of mid-week fixtures scheduled to roll up the curtain on what is expected to be the toughest Premier League season yet. This is due to their CAF Champions League commitment as they are away to Nigeria’s Enyimba tonight in their final Group B game - an encounter seen only as a formality after the Brazilians booked their spot in the semi-finals of the competition last month.

“I’ve looked at Kaizer Chiefs and I see Steve (Komphela) has sharpened the saw because they are different. We played Orlando Pirates in a friendly match in Namibia and I watched them against Chiefs and Platinum Stars in pre-season matches. They are different and they don’t play the same,” says Mosimane of his immediate title rivals.

“Maybe we also have to sharpen the saw, but not too much. How many years have Barcelona been playing the same style? Why can’t teams figure them out? I mean, we always know it’s going to be (Lionel) Messi, Neymar and (Luis) Suarez, the same 4-3-3. We have seen it before, so why don’t opposition teams stop it? Sundowns is playing every week. Stop us.”

It’s a daring challenge to those with ambitions to dethrone the Brazilians, but Mosimane argues that is not really what motivates him to preserve the hunger for success even after he became the first South African coach to win all domestic competitions eight months ago.

“We don’t have any kind of history in the African Champions League, so that motivates me,” Mosimane says. “Great coaches like Gavin Hunt have won the domestic league title three years in a row and they keep going. That motivates me. I have seen Pirates win four trophies in one (calendar) year and those are the things you look to and want to copy. As we speak, Sundowns are No 1 on the continent based on the number of games we have played around the continent. Yes, we have not won anything but that is motivation.”

Mosimane is also driven by the idea of helping improve players that are international superstars in their own right. In as much as Sundowns nearly made a clean sweep - only missing out on the Nedbank Cup - individual players, the coach adds, still have so much personal glory to chase.

“It’s important that Sundowns should have a lot of players in Bafana Bafana, hence we bought Thapelo Morena, Sibusiso Vilakazi and we think we should work to put Lucky Mohomi in the national team,” he explains. “Khama Billiat is heading to the Africa Cup of Nations with Zimbabwe for the first time since 2006. Anthony Laffor needs only a point to help Liberia qualify. That is football at the highest level. And my vision has always been to turn Sundowns around and give the players the opportunity to be involved in that platform.”

The Brazilians will only be in league action on September 14 when they travel to the Harry Gwala Stadium to face a side that left it to the final day of the previous season to escape the drop in Maritzburg United. Mosimane admits he is a little bothered by having to play catch-up so early on in the campaign, but boasts that it has somehow worked for him and his men given their recent success.

“I hate games in hand,” the coach says.”I was complaining last year but got no help from the PSL, so I have decided I am just going to keep quiet and play. We have managed up to now because we won the league (in May) and are in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Maybe they think we don’t need a break in between our fixtures. Anyway, I hope they help us now with the semi-finals (scheduled a week after the Maritzburg clash) because we have too many games now.” - The Star

Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno

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