Al Ahly will be the main threat
On Sundowns’ chances of winning the CAF Champions League
Mamelodi Sundowns did well this past weekend against TP Mazembe in the CAF Champions League, and with their success in the Africa Football League last year, their chances of winning this season’s Champions League are very high. When I was playing at Sundowns, we had to battle with Al Ahly, who were winning their domestic league in Egypt year in and year out, and that gave them more opportunities and more shots to win the Champions League. Now Sundowns are in a similar position where they are perennial winners of the domestic league, which gives them more opportunities to play in the Champions League and more opportunities to win it. I think this is a good thing for them, but I don’t think it’s particularly healthy for our domestic league. Our domestic league is one-sided, that is beyond question. Sundowns is a club that I played for, for six seasons, and they are going through so much success right now and I’m happy for the players and the coaching staff that I know there, but at the same time, you have to stand back because as a neutral, you want a healthy league that is interesting. You don’t want to see one team winning it all the time – that is just a fact. I said this time and time again that there are ways for other clubs to compete with Sundowns, it doesn’t have to be financially. The resources that they do have will have to go into the right areas, but at the moment, that is not happening. For Sundowns, this is a great position to be in and finishing on top of their group this season, they must be favourites to win the cup. They have fantastic depth, as everybody knows, and they also played an additional seven games at Afcon, which can also be a bad thing. They are brimming with success, coming home to a lot of plaudits, so it puts all of them in a good place to win the CAF Champions League for the second time.
On dealing with the pressure of being expected to win it
Sundowns are fully equipped to deal with the pressure and expectations of winning the Champions League. The plaudits that Rhulani (Mokwena) and his coaching staff must get is not only for their tactical acumen and for getting their starting XI recharged, rejuvenated, eager and willing to play three games per week and traveling. But more importantly, their scouting process has been quite remarkable in the fact that they have been bringing in players who know how to handle pressure. When you look at the Sundowns squad, you see intelligence on and off the field and that is something that they must be given credit for. With a lot of their players involved at Afcon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rhulani save the main core of his squad for Champions League matches. The main aim this season is the Champions League. I think that is one of the reasons they were actually desperate to have such a good start to the season. They wanted to do that so that by Christmas, they could have 10 to 15 points gap. That would allow them to focus solely on the CAF Champions League bearing in mind their Afcon, African Football League and domestic cup responsibilities. That was all important for them and I think they have achieved that, which now allows them some breathing space. It doesn’t really help that there is a very tight race for second, third, fourth and fifth positions. For instance, Cape Town City and SuperSport United drew the other day, when you only needed one of them to win to put the pressure on Sundowns so that they can look over their shoulder a little bit. At the moment, Sundowns have an 11-point lead with two games in hand.
On the strengths and weak nesses of the team
The strength of this team is certainly their ability to break down a low-block defence. They have done that very well this season and we saw that with the way they made late runs from their midfielders. Their midfield would drop down deep, fetch the ball and make late runs into good channels, and little chips into the box by players like Bongani Zungu, Teboho Mokoena and Aubrey Modiba, who walks into the midfield as well. They have become very adept to that. And if the opposition defence gets too tight and too compressed, Sundowns have their fullbacks who can attack from even wider, like Divine Lunga did once or twice when they played against AmaZulu FC recently. I think that is one of their strengths at the moment, they are quite patient in front of the box and they choose their moments very wisely. From a weakness point of view, it’s very difficult to point one out. But if a team can get a number of set-pieces, corners, free kicks around the box, Sundowns might be a little bit susceptible from a free kick, heading or presence at the back. But then the question is, how many teams can get into that position against them and get seven or eight corners against them or eight to nine free kicks? There are really few teams that can apply that sort of pressure against Sundowns.
On the other teams remaining in the competition
Other than Sundowns, there are lots of good teams remaining in the Champions League. Esperance seem to be having a good resurgence – they finished second in their group – and their presence in the quarterfinals is good for Tunisian football. Al Ahly will be the main threat to Sundowns and they are also defending champions in the competition and finished first in their group. But people must watch out for dark horses, Pedro de Luanda from Angola. Fans must keep an eye on them because Sundowns might have to play against them leading up to the final. They looked good in the group stage and that is why I was not surprised that Angola showed quite a bit of steel at the Afcon, as a lot of their players come from Petro de Luanda. This is another proof that Southern African football is looking healthy. That Pedro Luanda team looks very promising. They knocked Sundowns out of the Champions League a few seasons back and they are still the main team in Angola at the moment. They have a lot of good players who were attracted to the finances at the club. Sundowns have to recognise the important games because the knockout stages can be tricky. Every game is important, but there comes one particular game where you really have to pull up your socks and be on form, and they have been in that type of position many times. And you can’t afford to be tripped up in the Champions League knockout stages. I just hope really that they continue to show consistency, and they have been quite remarkable at that. With the number of games that they have played, they have done well. For them to have shown this kind of form, traveling away and playing home, has been phenomenal. I want to see them retain that in the knockout stages.