Talking up a good game

Besides all the other sub-plots to this game, it will be interesting to see whether Orlando Pirates assistant coach Rhulani Mokwena will serve up the sumptuous ‘mind games dish’ he so effortlessly did in the build-up to the Soweto Derby. It worked to the tee against Bucs’ biggest adversaries. But should Mokwena decide to ‘go mental’, he will know full well that in Pitso Mosimane, he is up against a different foe to Giovanni Solinas. In fact, it could be argued that some of that trickery he employed against Amakhosi, he learnt from being Mosimane’s right- hand man. That said, Mokwena should be given credit for appreciating the fact that you need to shake up the opposition camp a little bit ahead of a massive encounter because even though words can never break any bones, they can hurt if they reach the intended target and have enough venom. While Solinas does not boast an impressive CV and therefore it became easy for Mokwena to throw some below-the-belt punches at him, in contrast, Mosimane has achieved a lot in his coaching career and won almost everything there is to win locally, even adding the coveted CAF Champions League to his resume. It’s not easy to play mind games with such a man or to pick him out for taunting. Jingles has seen and done it all. In fact, he considers himself the master of the mind game and has used it to good effect against the selfsame Pirates in the past, praising them for “not parking the bus” like many other Absa Premiership teams, and “playing open foot- ball”, and yet going on to humiliate them with a 6-0 scoreline. So the question begs to be answered: will Mokwena even play the mind games or will the mere thought of it scare him to silence?