Ahead of their Nedbank Cup last 32 clash at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria tomorrow night, Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United coaches Pitso Mosimane and Kaitano Tembo addressed the media at the Premier Soccer League headquarters and the differences between mentor and student could not have been more pronounced.
Fairly new to the job, Tembo not only arrived early for the event but he was extremely formal in his dealings with the media, respectful of the fourth estate and responding to questions in a professional way and straight to the point.
His time was sweet and short.
On the other hand, old horse Mosimane had to be called on a few occasions by the PSL official, he was that late.
Upon arrival he sat at the table, sipping on a cup of coffee with a sweetener and engaged the gathered news hounds with small talk before the start of the formal proceedings.
He even had the temerity to ask if the conference could start as the media had gone for lunch while waiting for him.
Typically, Mosimane put those who dared to ask silly questions in their place with some sharp retorts.
Here is how they responded to topics relating to the match.
Ahead of their Nedbank Cup last 32 clash at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria tomorrow night, Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United coaches Pitso Mosimane and Kaitano Tembo (pictured) addressed the media at the Premier Soccer League headquarters and the differences between mentor and student could not have been more pronounced. Photo: BackpagePix
On the tie
MOSIMANE: It is a difficult one because it is a local derby and we are playing cup specialists.
We are always not sure of the result because they are the cup kings. They eliminated us in the MTN8, so they are the favourites.
TEMBO: We have played each other four times already this season and we have won in the cup and they beat us in the league twice by 2-1.
It is always tight when we play each other, it is a derby.
On the opposition
MOSIMANE: They are structured and more rigid. Kaitano always plays three midfielders against us, Teboho (Mokoena), Dean (Furman) and the third may be (Sipho) Mbule or the other youngster from Uganda.
(Bradley) Grobler will be in the starting line-up because he scores goals. They will have those speedy wingers that we will have to take care of.
TEMBO: Tactically it is a huge challenge for us.
Pitso is a good coach, he pays attention to detail, the little things matter to him.
And he has the added advantage of having good individual players like (Themba) Zwane and (Gaston) Siriano.
On why it’s important to win
MOSIMANE: Our people (supporters) love the cups so that is why cups are important for us. That is why we won the Telkom Knockout.
I like this cup because it gives you an opportunity to play continental football (Nedbank Cup champions qualify to play in Africa’s second tier knockout competition, the CAF Confederation Cup).
TEMBO: We are always keen to go play on the continent, in the CAF Confederation Cup.
We had our young players like Teboho and Mbule start their careers with us by playing in the CAF Cup and they never looked back.
The continental competition helps build the players physically and mentally because there’s a lot of tough challenges there.
So this competition is good for us. If you lose this early you are not going to play a lot of games so we need to go through so that we are playing every weekend.