Pitso puts on a brave face
It’s no crisis says the Sundowns coach after his team go down to Chiefs and extend their winless run in the PSL to four
Pitso Mosimane is insisting that an unusually poor run of league form for his Mamelodi Sundowns team is no crisis and that they can still go on and successfully defend their Premier Soccer League title. The Brazilians go into tomorrow night’s home game against Bloemfontein Celtic having failed to win any of their last four league encounters and could be slipping into a confidence crisis.
They have drawn two and lost two in their last four matches and therefore have taken a total of two points out of a possible 12 and lost momentum in the title race.
Sundowns are now left with 12 games to play, but find themselves more than two wins behind the pace setters.
“We believe we can will all the games,” asserted a confident-sounding Mosimane, despite significant injuries to key players like Wayne Arendse and Sibusiso Vilakazi.
“We have enough games to turn this situation around. It’s still a long way,” he added.
“When we won the title in 2014 we were in a similar situation and then we also had injuries but we came back. It’s not about how you start, but how you finish. We just have to grind and get back. We have enough players despite the injuries. We haven’t missed the injured players.”
Sundowns have drawn with Chippa United and Polokwane City and lost to fellow front-runners Cape Town City and Kaizer Chiefs in their last four encounters.
And Celtic will likely prove no walkover either despite their lowly position in the PSL standings.
For two successive seasons, the Free State club have shocked Sundowns with away victories in Atteridgeville in the league.
In 2015 they hammered Sundowns 5-0 to end their title hopes, allowing arch-rivals Chiefs to go on and win the championship. And last year Celtic won 3-1 to end Sundowns’ 18-match unbeaten record and deny them a chance to tie with Kaizer Chiefs for the record of the longest unbeaten run in a single league season.
But just six weeks ago Sundowns won 1-0 away at Celtic in their last meeting.
Sundowns, who sit in fifth place in the league, play another title contender SuperSport United twice this month as well as take a tricky trip away to meet improving Free State Stars.
Including Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Chiefs at Soccer City and Saturday’s Nedbank Cup second-round tie against Lamontville Golden Arrows, Mosimane’s men play a total of eight matches in April.