JOHANNESBURG - It’s not an Absa Premiership defeat he would have budgeted for. A struggling Kaizer Chiefs would have gone straight into the winnable games column for Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane, who said Tuesday night’s defeat has not changed his side’s DNA.
“We don’t know how to park the bus,” was his response to a question about tactics following the 2-1 loss at the hands of Amakhosi at Loftus Versfeld.
“Nobody ever has the ball when they are playing Sundowns. The only way they know how to play is to defend and park the bus. Maybe one day we will go to their home grounds and play five at the back,” he continued.
He’d been outwitted by Chiefs coach Steve Komphela with a clever 5-3-2 formation which meant the two fullbacks, Philani Zulu and Joseph Molangoane, formed part of the attack when Amakhosi were going forward.
Sundowns sort of coped, but the final score line suggested they also struggled to use their share of the ball possession to win the match.
However, Mosimane, whose side still enjoy the advantage of having three Premiership games in hand, was unperturbed, although much of his post-match remarks suggested he simply suffered from sour grapes.
"Jingles" suggested he’d done beleaguered colleague Komphela a favour by letting him “take this one to get a break, a reliever”.
With Sundowns now taking on AmaZulu on Saturday night at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, Mosimane is still confident his men will bounce back stronger, especially now that their focus is fully on domestic football after they were eliminated from the CAF Champions League and denied a chance to defend their continental trophy by Wydad Casablanca of Morocco last month.
“We have a team that believes in going forward and believes in playing football,” Mosimane said. "What I am happy about, even though we were not dangerous against Chiefs in terms of scoring goals, is that this is a gallant team, a team with character, where you can even play Thapelo (Morena) as a centre-back but still have him go forward.
“This is good because our culture, our philosophy, is that we don’t know how to park the bus (play a defensive style). We have never had a training session of parking the bus. So we always have to go and try and win.
"At this moment we are still licking our wounds and recovering, so we are not really thinking about the next game. For me, AmaZulu are a closed book. I don’t know them well. They are a new team. I have seen a little bit, when they played Platinum Stars and Golden Arrows.
"I saw goals, though. I have to check and unpack and then be able to say what we can expect. My only worry is that we have lost two home games now, but have a 100 percent record away. It’s unbelievable.”
@superjourno