The Premier Soccer League’s tit-for-tat strategy produced a spectacular net result as tournament favourites Mamelodi Sundowns ended up Carling Knockout Cup first-round casualties.
A seriously depleted Sundowns side lost 5-4 on penalties to TS Galaxy in a thriller at the Mbombela Stadium on Wednesday evening. After extra-time, the teams were level-pegging at 2-2.
After the match, a highly vexed Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena declared: “Who cares that you play the day after – and you tell me of any club in the world, any club, that play a day after the Fifa break (ends).
“Who cares that you have the Footballer of the Season not here; that you have the Goalkeeper of the Year not here; who cares that you don’t have the Defender of the Year... who cares?
“Everyone will say these are excuses. People will celebrate our downfall and that’s Okay, because as human beings we plan but God decides.
“If He decides that we shouldn’t win, then as one of his kids, I have to trust in His wisdom.”
In the run-up to the clash, Sundowns appealed to the PSL to adjust fixtures to make provision for their commitments in the new African Football League (AFL), a project spearheaded by SA billionaire Patrice Motsepe.
Initially, the PSL’s Board of Governors decided against making provision for Masandawana.
Rulani Mokwena pulls no punches after the loss 🥊
— SuperSport Football ⚽️ (@SSFootball) October 18, 2023
The Sundowns coach praises his understrength side despite defeat to TS Galaxy 🔚#CarlingKnockout pic.twitter.com/z7ZfilV4Ot
However, a few days later, the Board of Governors changed their minds after realising, figuratively speaking, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Sundowns are owned by Motsepe and he became the saviour of the PSL two seasons ago when they lost the GladAfrica sponsorship.
In their moment of dire need, at the start of a new season, he rescued the PSL as a sponsor for the Motsepe Foundation League (National First Division).
It would have gone against the grain of some board members that the PSL had to adjust their fixtures but then they handed Sundowns a fixture date from hell.
The fixture was 24 hours after the Bafana Bafana-Ivory Coast match and several Sundowns players would not be available to play.
Hence, Mokwena was justified in raising the matter of playing a day after the Fifa break had ended.
Of course, Sundowns could have appealed against the date and the PSL handbook makes provision for that.
However, it is hardly likely that failing to appeal was an oversight by Sundowns because in the build-up to the match, Mokwena sounded confident that the club could handle the pressure of the ultra-congested fixture list.
On reflection, Mokwena may have been correct because even when his depleted team were reduced to 10 men following the red card for Bongani Zungu’s terrible tackle on Bernard Parker – which resulted in the TS Galaxy striker sustaining a broken leg – they managed an equaliser in the dying minutes to force the match into extra-time.
The Brazilians’ first-round exit means that TS Galaxy owner Tim Sukazi, a vocal critic of the AFL, will be smiling all the way to the bank because his team will pocket an additional R300 000 to the R250 000 paid to all 16 participating teams.