Will Billiat get Sundowns smiling or can Wits’ Mhango hit form in final?
IF Mamelodi Sundowns and Wits can put on a show half as good as their coaches displayed at the Premier Soccer League’s headquarters’ in Parktown yesterday, then brace yourself for an entertaining MTN8 final in Nelspruit tomorrow.
Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt head into tomorrow’s final, at Mbombela Stadium at 5pm, with contrasting fortunes. Mosimane could afford to declare that he is blessed, having won every domestic trophy on offer, except the MTN8. He will look to change that tomorrow and then next month try to clinch the prestigious CAF Champions League in a two-leg final against Zamalek.
If Mosimane is blessed, then you could argue to a degree that Hunt has been cursed.
Despite making Wits more competitive and transforming them from a mid-table team to league contenders – he hasn’t brought any silverware at Milpark in the three years he has spent there. Last season these two coaches pushed each other in the league race, but when it mattered Sundowns sprinted to the title leaving Wits way behind.
Hunt, though, has cup wins while in charge of Moroka Swallows and SuperSport, where he was also a three-time PSL winner 2008-2010.
It is a fact that goals win you games, and in finals one score often proves enough.
Tomorrow, on paper, they shouldn’t be in short supply from Sundowns, particularly, but how do the strike forces shape up? Sundowns options – Khama Billiat, Sibusiso Vilakazi, Yannick Zakri WITH Colombian hitman Leonardo Castro some distance from a full recovery from an ankle injury he picked up several weeks ago, coach Mosimane has found the going tough on the domestic front.
As previously mentioned in our midfielders analysis, the Brazilians have been able to rely on Percy Tau and Anthony Laffor to chip in with crucial goals, but that has been in their CAF Champions League campaign.
Sundowns have only managed four goals in as many games in all domestic competitions, below par for a team able to score from anywhere as they clinched the league title last season.
But this shouldn’t suggest Mosimane will not be able to figure out a way to get his men to replicate their form in continental matches in the MTN8 final. And he has the players to do it in Billiat, Vilakazi and even new boy Zakri, who was signed from ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast before the transfer window shut last month.
8/10 Wits options – Eleazar Rodgers, Gabad-inho Mhango, Cuthbert Malajila THE Clever Boys also have one of their more prolific goal-scorers from last season still out injured in James Keene. But coach Hunt made sure he wouldn’t miss him too much and recruited a completely new front line during the off-season to accommodate Keene’s absence as well as that of exciting winger-cum-striker, Phakamani Mahlambi. Wits, who do not yet have to juggle the domestic league and continental commitments, have so far played six matches in all competitions and managed nine goals. Rodgers, Mhango and Malajila have all opened their accounts and are growing in confidence ahead of the final.
Sundowns haven’t really been leaking goals, meaning these Wits strikers will have to double their efforts to get in behind them. Rodgers and Mhango are almost certain to start the game, with Malajila being a very decent alternative later in the match against his former club. But Hunt might also decide to pick all three and go all out in an attempt to finally bring silverware at the club for the first time in his threeyear tenure. Whichever way he goes, the coach obviously has a solid team backed by extremely gifted midfielders to give the strikers good service.
8/10