Downs’ late night date
Pitso Mosimane has no concerns about the late kick-off time for his side’s opening Caf Champions League Group C game against Petro de Luanda at Loftus Versveld tonight.
A 9pm kick-off is foreign to South African football but Mamelodi Sundowns have become accustomed to starting matches at this time of night in the Caf
Champions League, where they have faced numerous North African teams that usually play their home games late.
Preparations for the game have been tweaked to accommodate longer hours of waitng before kick-off but Masandawana coach Mosimane says he is used to this kind of programme, as a veteran of Africa’s elite competition.
“We have played at 11pm in North Africa when it is Ramadan. You have to be very careful because the day can be very long and you must be very careful because you can eat and get bored. Normally when you are used to sleeping at a certain time, your body switches off because it is used to it. Your body has a pattern and once you disturb the mood and the mentality, it can get tricky,” said Mosimane.
“In North Africa 9pm is normal, they don’t play earlier, 10pm and 11pm are okay because the day is different there and in the morning there are no people in the streets. But here in South Africa at 6am you can see that we are going somewhere. It is a culture and it is a different mentality,” Mosimane added before he went on to congratulate his Masandawana star players Themba Zwane and Denis Onyango who have been shortlisted for the African Player-of-the-Year and the Interclubs Player-of-the-Year while “Jingles” himself made the shortlist for the Coach-of-the- Year award.
“Congratulations to Themba, Denis and Percy Tau for being nominated in that space. Zwane was the top goal-scorer in the Champions League and he had a fantastic run. None of these people who I have mentioned were nominated because they have done well by themselves. They have been nominated for the team. We, as the coaches, can feel big or whatever but we don’t play, the players play ... I am humbled to be acknowledged because once you are in that space, it is important. Once you win it then it is a cherry on top,” he said.
Tonight’s game will be followed by an extremely busy December for Sundowns, where they are scheduled to play another six matches, made up of Champions League games in Morocco against Wydad Casablanca and in Algeria against USM Alger, league games against Stellenbosch, Bidvest Wits and Polokwane City, followed by the Telkom Knockout final against Maritzburg United. on December 14.
at Leopard Creek
Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal (above) stormed the back nine of Leopard Creek with a redhot putter as he gave himself a three-stroke lead after the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship yesterday.
Larrazabal, who was in second place overnight after a 66 in the first round, was level-par after the front nine yesterday, but he began the back nine with four successive birdies, leading him to a 69 for nine-under-par overall, three strokes ahead of Branden Grace and first-round leader Wil Besseling, who bogeyed the ninth, his last hole to finish with a 73.
The highlight of his round was an extraordinary 70-foot birdie putt on the par-three 12th.
“I did a good job because it was not an easy day with the wind swirling and gusting and we were going for tight targets, which makes it so tough.
“It was very tricky taking the right club with the greens drying out and I played with a lot of patience, but I also played aggressive enough to get that run of birdies, you just need to wait for a few putts to drop. Twelve was a great one, I hit a good putt but I still thought it would be a two-putt. It’s funny, when I got to the green, Johann Rupert told me it was a birdie putt and I guess he was right,” Larrazabal said with a chuckle after his brilliant round.
Grace played just as well as Larrazabal from tee-to-green, but his putter wasn’t quite as hot and he posted a 70 to finish on six-under-par, still very much in contention and flying the South African flag high.
“I thought I played really well but on a grinding day like today it’s your putter that really counts and those putts you have to make. I hit some great putts and I was just unlucky, but I left myself lots of four and five-footers for par. But when this course has its teeth out you have to be happy with pars and it was a grinding day,” Grace said.