All hail magnificent Downs, the champions of Africa

Sundowns show incredible mental strength to win continent’s premier competition

IN FLIGHT: Zamalek’s Aly Gabr struggles to keep up with Sundowns’ Khama Billiat in the Caf Champions League final second leg. Sundowns lost 1-0 but were 3-1 aggregate victors. Zamalek (0) 1 0 champions Zamalek, three times in a row further proved that point. The last of those wins was a 3-0 demolition in the first leg.

This was a test of Sundowns’ mental strength. It started before they even got here when some online trolls sent their players death threats. It continued when they arrived here on Thursday and found that Zamalek hadn’t allocated them a training pitch. It went further when Zamalek threatened to go back on their word of supplying Sundowns with tickets for their travelling fans.

When Sundowns eventually did the pitch inspection, it got worse. Cellphones, a tool that Egyptians used to overthrow Honsi Mubarak during the Arab Spring which was ignited on social media, were used as a weapon against the Brazilians last night. Zamalek fans lit up this stadium with their phones at the sight of Sundowns’ players. Those were the friendly supporters. The others used lasers, blew up massive fireworks and even threw missiles at them. Flares were lit minutes into the match, in a part of the field that had a banner emblazoned 4-0.

Sundowns stood tall like they have been this week. When they didn’t get a venue, they found one for themselves on Friday. Instead of allowing their fans to worry about travelling to Egypt and not watch their team, Sundowns’ president Patrice Motsepe took them out for lunch by the sea. The players met the hostile reception by taking pictures having laughed off the death threats. Keagan Dolly trapped one of the bottles thrown onto the pitch with his chest and kicked it out, still in his suit and formal shoes. Khama Billiat moved swiftly to duck one missile. “Kill them”, an Egyptian reporter shouted from the stands.

Sundowns refused to die. They passed that mental test, leaving the small matter of wrapping up this game to become African champions for the first time in their history.

Pitso Mosimane’s plan was to weather the storm in the first 15 minutes and frustrate the fans. It went further than those minutes. Denis Onyango played a big part at first, killing Zamalek’s momentum by slowing down the game and going down at the slightest of touches. Stanley Ohawuchi came close to scoring but committed the cardinal sin of coming into contact with Onyango. Uganda’s No 1 stole a few minutes because of that contact. Onyango was genuinely injured and Wayne Sandilands replaced him.

He quickly dusted off any cobwebs that might have crept in as the third choice ‘keeper and pulled off a brilliant save to ensure that the first half ended goalless. The fans, whose whistles sounded like a swarm of bees, stinging to the ear, went dead silent at half-time. That silence didn’t last long, with deafening cheers after Ohawuchi squeezed the ball between Sandilands at the post. That goal literally fired up Zamalek.

Sundowns weren’t moved and did the business, becoming on South Africa’s second side to be crowned African champions after Orlando Pirates’ heroics in 1995.