A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: how Pitso's Mamelodi Sundowns confounded the continent

MIRACLE IN ALGERIA: Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane

Today I come to praise Pitso Mosimane. As one of those football addicts who stayed up way beyond midnight last Saturday night, it was a memorable 90 minutes on the Mamelodi Sundowns roller-coaster. Did I say memorable? Make that  bloody miraculous!

After a long day which featured come-from-behind wins for Bafana Bafana (on penalties over Lesotho in the COSAFA quarter-finals), a missed penalty for Cristiano Ronaldo (in another fascinating failure for Portugal) and a first win for Allister Coetzee’s Springboks, it was entirely unexpected.

We burned the midnight oil expecting to see another brave failure in Africa from our PSL champions. When they got to 20 minutes at 0-0, I tweeted that the match situation was already better than expected.

Truth is, our KaboYellow title winners went to Algeria with little to hope against their 2015 champions ES Setif. To list the problems for South Africa’s leading club in full would require several pages, but let’s just say their preparations weren’t ideal, they didn't expect to be in Africa, contracts need settling, new blood has yet to arrive.

In goal, Wayne Sandilands found himself thrust in front of a packed May 18th 1945 Stadium (read more about that name at the foot of this story) as a late stand-in for PSL goalkeeper of the year Dennis Onyango of Uganda and Kennedy Mweene of Zambia.

In midfield, with Bongani Zungu off to Portugal, Tiyani Mabunda need a last-minute visa application to get him out of the country for his continental debut. A word too for Leonardo Castro, who opted to return from Colombia to help out despite the imminent end of his one-year deal in Tshwane.

Whispers told us central defender Ramahlwe Mphahlele was left at home chewing over a move to Kaizer Chiefs, striker Anthony Laffour had “disciplinary problems” and it felt like Pitso Mosimane's usually impeccable preparation was in disarray.

With Ramadan to consider, the game didn’t start until after 11pm, no South African club has ever kicked off so late. And of course, no club has EVER played in the African Champions League group phase after being knocked out of both continental tournaments - only the disqualification of AS Vita Club had landed them back in Africa’s most important cup competition.

And Sundowns previous trips to North Africa hardly instilled confidence. Remember 0-4 against Tunisia’s CF Faxien, 0-3 against Egypt’s Al Ahli, 2-4 to Sudan’s Al Hilal?

They trotted out in Setif, memorable only for football and a massacre (105 were shot dead by French police on May 8, 1945) with a record of six defeats and two draws in their previous eight games north of the equator.

What was it Pitso said a few weeks ago about travelling north? "You see how it is. It's a jungle."

Under pressure from the first whistle to the last, we witnessed a 90 minute miracle. An away win to start a qualifying process Sundowns should never have been involved in.

First the long-suffering Mabunda silenced the rowdy crowd with a stunning first half goal against the run of play. Then, playing on the transition, the tireless Keagan Dolly - hero of Bafana’s only AFCON 2017 win against Gambia - finally threaded a ball through to PSL player of the season Khama Billiat.

The priceless Zimbabwean wove his magical thread through the Algerian defence and stuck it away. At 2-0, an unthinkable victory was confirmed. Setif had barely forced a save out of the impeccable Sandilands.

And then, in injury-time, a roar from the outraged fans, loud bangs from thrown fireworks and a full-scale pitch invasion. Chaos as Sundowns sought shelter by the bench. Fearful Setif players stayed on the pitch, looking on with some trepidation but trying to re-assure the opposition of safe passage from the stadium.


Footage of the trouble HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX4EPod8avQ




Though our SuperSport and SABC commentators were doing their best from studios in Johannesburg, we were not granted visuals of the missiles thrown, the security guards trying to keep control.

Referee Mahamadou Keita from Mali, who did Sundowns few favours on an historic night, tried to get the match restarted but in the end, the final whistle went amid the chaos.

Much will be said, hopefully by SAFA to CAF, about a night of high drama and crowd chaos which, like the trouble at Euro2016, must be punished.

But this week, let’s just bask in the glory of South Africa’s finest Champions League performance in years. With Nigerians Enyimba at home on June 29. Pitso and Sundowns can finally give the nation something to shout about.

To read about the horrific events of May 8, 1945 in Setif: http://5pillarsuk.com/2015/05/08/8th-may-1945-remembering-algerias-setif-massacre/

Signs of improvement for Bafana: but Shaky needs to be less friendly

THE LOCAL VIEW: Mashaba arrives in Honduras
Picture: @bafanabafana

SUDDENLY, South Africa's football team is a "well-oiled machine" according to Bafana Bafana boss Shakes Mashaba. A nation "which should be among the top sides in Africa" according to Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas.


My take? ALWAYS APPLAUD SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT. That was my reaction to those who wrote off Bafana Bafana’s win in Costa Rica in the wee hours of Friday morning as “just another friendly”.

And that will be my reaction if national coach Ephraim Mashaba manages to rouse South Africa to a similar triumph in central America against Honduras as Tuesday becomes Wednesday at San Pedro Sula.

Yes, coach Shakes does love a friendly to hide his shortcomings in competitive games. But then we all know that. We also know he likes to pick players based on agent’s recommendations rather than the evidence of his own eyes.

We also know he got his own son to ask questions at his last major press conference in this country as we recovered from the shock of that 1-3 AFCON 2017 qualifying defeat in Mauritania. 

We know he makes dodgy substitutions when the pressure is on, I’m told his team talks are a joke and the man himself freely accepts he’s no tactical genius, “more of a motivator” in his words.

But the win against Costa Rica, a tiny nation of less than five million people, WAS significant. Though they had barely won a game since their epic progress to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil last year, this was on their patch, in front of 25,000 enthusiastic fans.

Remember, Bafana didn’t have a real striker in their squad. It took them two visits to the airport to actually get the impromptu two-nation CONCACAF tour underway because their US transit visas were not in order.

And then there was that abortive attempt to fly three weary Orlando Pirates - Mpho Makola,  Thamsanqa Gabuza and Thabo Matlaba - to Costa Rica via Brazil as late reinforcements.

To be frank the whole trip looked like a waste of time and effort (though not funds, apparently the CONCACAF nations are paying for the whole thing) until Andile Jali’s first half goal gave us hope of an away win against a nation ranked 42nd in the world despite their recent slump in form (they reached a high of 13th after the World Cup).

And so to Honduras. As far as I know, no reinforcements have been shipped out. Tyson Hlatshwayo has flown home after the death of his uncle. Apparently Shaky is happy to continue his crusade without a striker after the withdrawal of non-playing Bournemouth “star” Tokelo Rantie with a muscle strain (that’s another story).

We will play Honduras, a nation of just 8m, ranked 89 in the world (South Africa are currently 73) with George Lebese, Thulani Serero and Sibusiso Vilakazi pushing forward from midfield, perhaps even Kamohelo Mokotjo will join in the fun.

Another win is quite possible. Honduras reached the last World Cup but while Costa Rica won their group unbeaten and sent England and Italy home, Honduras ended bottom of their group with no points and a goal difference of -7.

If Bafana do win, expect Shaky to tell us once more how we can compete with “world-class opposition” and how we can “beat anybody on our day” and who can argue?

But then the Bafana boss must return to competitive football. On Saturday at the Rand Stadium, his home-based CHAN squad - a team of likely PSL substitutes rather than brave youngsters - begin their two-legged epic against Angola.

Then we have the two REAL games against the same nation in World Cup qualification. And, in the coming months. the prospect of home and away clashes with Cameroon where two wins are imperative to revive minuscule AFCON 2017 qualification hopes.

Those are the vital games. Friendly results against Costa Rica and Honduras will count for nothing if Shaky goes out of the World Cup and AFCON.

But if he returns from the Americas with two neat away wins in front of hostile crowds, we have to accept THERE ARE SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT.

The Shakes Mashaba verdict: One game, one mighty away win. Now for Nigeria (hopefully)

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS CRITICISM AND OPINION. AND PRAISE

Lifting the nation: Bafana Bafana head coach Shakes Mashaba

Shakes Mashaba re-started his career as South Africa’s national coach with a bang on Friday night and faces Nigeria (unless FIFA intervene) on Wednesday in Cape Town with renewed optimism surging around the country.

Chief among the praise singers? Our Sports Ministers Fikile Mbalula. I caught up with him at the ANN7 South African of the Year awards at the Sandton Convention centre on Saturday night just to check those laughing, dancing tweets he sends out are REALLY his: “No assistants, all my own work,” was his response to messages of wild congratulation to Mashaba in Sudan.

And that’s as it should be. Shakes went in to his first game pre-occupied by the fate of his AmaJitas, having engineered a path to the African Youth Championship in Senegal next year against Cameroon less than a week before taking over the big boys of Bafana.

For that reason, the questions before the game were many and varied. Players with strong European CVs like May Mahlangu, Thulani Serero and Siyanda Xulu were ignored in the coach’s new selection while Tokelo Rantie and Dean Furman, in-and-out players in the lower reaches of English football, were drafted straight in to the starting line-up.

In-form PSL players like Tsepo Masilela, Kermit Erasmus and Lehlohonolo Majoro were left out while David Xulu and Bongani Ndulula were in. By the time Keagan Dolly and Mashaba admitted they knew next-to-nothing about Sudan or its football team, the debate was raging.

And when Kamahelo Mokotjo, playing well for FC Twente in the Dutch Ere Divisie, couldn’t even find a place on the bench, things moved up a notch.

But that’s how it should be. No national coach is immune to critique, even on debut. There's a nasty, desperate BBK column in the Sunday Times today suggesting racism is behind the questioning of some of Mashaba's decisions. Given the battle against his predecessor Gordon Igesund, that's just low-life journalism.

Yes, the build-up was lively, as you’d expect… but when Bafana hit back after a difficult first half with supersub Sbu Vilakazi scoring a brace before Ndulula added the third, general celebration ensued. Mashaba's brave decisions had become great ones. All was right in the diski world.

I said all week Sudan, ranked 115 in by FIFA, would be no match for South Africa, ranked 69. Mark Fish and I agreed a away point would be fine, but a win even better… and that’s how it turned out.

Bringing on player of the season Vilakazi of Wits for Bournemouth's Rantie proved a work of genius, Furman and Jali took control of the middle of the park and Senzo Meyiwa, who took the shirt and the armband from the injured Itumeleng Khune, was near-perfect. Oupa Manyisa, who should have started, added impetus when he came on. Shakes passed with flying colours on all his major questions.

With Nigeria in all sorts of trouble – they could be suspended from FIFA by the time you read this and “interim coach” Steve Keshi’s African Champions lost to Congo in their opening game on Saturday – but the fact remains they Super Eagles have only lost ONE and draw ONE in nine attempts against South Africa.

But Shakes is well aware of that. Blessed with an extraordinary ability to meld even an average bunch of players into a “patriotic unit”, here is his interview with SAFA after the match:  “Once we weathered the storm in the opening minutes in which they pumped long balls upfront, I knew we would achieve our goal of coming away with three points. And the boys stuck to the script.

“In the second half, we completely dominated the game and with clinical finishing, the scoreline could have been 6, 7 or 8. But the 3-0 win is quite encouraging and we need to maintain the momentum.

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“I think the entire team played well and it will be unfair to single out individuals. It was a great team effort and I think all players deserve praise.

 “We are meeting our nemesis but my gut feel is that all that all the losing to Nigeria is about to change. Wednesday should be a defining moment.”

Can’t say it any better than that, Shakes!

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' Youtube channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names.

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