Johannesburg - Even with the Absa Premiership trophy firmly in his grasp, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane is still having sleepless nights over the one that got away.
The Nedbank Cup has always had a special place in his heart - being a competition that earns you a place in the CAF Confederation Cup and the only piece of silverware the Brazilians managed to get their hands on last season.
Mosimane watched in disbelief as his men were dumped out of the tournament two weeks ago following a 2-0 defeat to Orlando Pirates, who had lost defender Edwin Gyimah to a red card early in the second half.
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“We had a cocktail of cups and were a little bit too ambitious. We wanted everything,” Mosimane said yesterday as he collected yet another accolade - that of Coach of the Month for March and April - barely 24-hours after clinching the Premier League title. “We believed we could get everything. And I am sitting here with you and feel it was very silly and naughty to lose to Pirates. I mean, really.
You can’t lose a match where it’s 10 against 11 when you dominated in the first half and with the missed chances that we got. “All they (Sundowns players) had to do was get the ball behind the defence and it’s a goal. That’s it. For me, that was the weakest Pirates team we have ever played since I have been here at Sundowns.“
They are forever strong against us and when they come to Pretoria, they beat us. And the same can be said that when we go to Orlando Stadium we beat them. So, it was the weakest side I have ever played against, and we lost to that team. That teaches you football. You become humble and you learn your lessons.
”Mosimane had actually gone on a bit of a tangent there. The question was whether he would be able to defend the championship trophy the Brazilians had been able to wrap up with two games to spare. Their title rivals had been nowhere in sight as the swashbuckling ‘Bafana Ba style’ showed their ruthless nature in hammering their troubled and relegation-threatened neighbours University of Pretoria 3-0 at the Tuks Stadium on Wednesday.
It’s a tough ask for any coach in the world to repeat the same feat in consecutive seasons, but it has been done before. Pirates did it as recent as 2011 and 2012, but it took two different coaches in Ruud Krol and Augusto Palacios. Can Mosimane, who leaves no stone unturned in his preparation for a match follow in the footsteps of Ted Dumitru and Gavin Hunt?“Yes, it’s a record, but were these people involved in every competition?
Can you go a 100 percent on the Telkom Knockout (which Sundowns also bagged in December, making Mosimane the only coach in the PSL to win all four major domestic trophies), mixed with the league and then go to Lubumbashi as well as Kinshasa (in the Champions League)?
It is difficult. It’s not easy. But I give credit to those who have travelled the road before me. They are legends,” the coach reasoned.“But I am not here for competition. If I want to throw the cat among the pigeons I will say I spent five years at Safa, so maybe I could have got what they got in those years. I am not that unlucky, that in five years I wouldn’t win anything. “No. There are four trophies in one season, meaning in five years you miss out on 20 trophies.
I mean, really.”In the end, Mosimane once again caught the big fish - the 2015/16 Premier League title, which guarantees him a place in next year’s Champions League, another Holy Grail that got away for the former Bafana Bafana coach the same week Sundowns were beaten by Pirates.
The Star