How Steve outfoxed Pitso
WE CAUGHT PITSO’S MEN UNAWARES
Sundowns coach still happy because he lost to his ‘brother’.
Steve Komphela said his counterpart Pitso Mosimane’s intense analysis of his opponents forced him to “flip the script” and catch the Mamelodi Sundowns coach unaware in Kaizer Chiefs’ 2-1 Absa Premiership win at Loftus Versveld on Tuesday night.
Komphela guided his under-fire Kaizer Chiefs side to an impressive victory, especially given that Chiefs were short of at least seven of their first team players. Amakhosi’s defence was particularly injury-ravaged, with Joseph Molangoane forced to play at right back against Masandawana.
“Pitso does a lot of analysis, he goes through individuals and he goes through your structure,” said Komphela.
“Maybe one of the ways to overcome such when you don’t perform at your best, you have to tweak certain things ... 2-1 playing away, we take it under the conditions and hope that it will boost their confidence.
“There are certain environments and expectations at Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns. In a smaller environment you can take that risk. I remember we were playing Santos while I was at Free State Stars, we had nobody and we went on to win that game 2-0.”
Mosimane is known to be allergic to defeat, especially in big games, but this one perhaps went down slightly more smoothly as he lost to a man he called his “brother”.
“I said it that if I have to lose this game and I lose to Steve, then I am happy. He deserves a break and a reliever. He is my brother, black coaches are very few in the PSL,” said Mosimane.
“Last year we lost to Serame Letsoaka at Bloemfontein Celtic, I was happy. So I am trying to protect him, it is not the first time I speak about Steve, I want him to stay on the job because I know there will be someone from Europe coming.”
Chiefs will now face Orlando Pirates in Saturday’s Soweto derby, while Sundowns are at home to AmaZulu on the same day.