HOW PITSO CONQUERED AFRICA: the sheer joy of an African Champions League triumph after 11 years

IT wasn’t easy. It wasn’t perfect. But it was effective. Mamelodi Sundowns entered the gates of hell at the other end of Africa and came away beaten but triumphant to win the African Champions League 3-1 on aggregate.

And yes, they endured missiles (even during the warm-up), lasers and fireworks in front of an estimated 75,000 at the Borg el Arab stadium 25km outside Alexandria. The lamentable Confederation of African football, based 200km away in Cairo, did nothing about it. But all that was expected.

What wasn’t predicted was two awful challenges on Masandawana’s Ugandan goalkeeper Dennis Onyango, voted the best stopper in the PSL last season.

Midway through the first half, Onyango was unable to carry on and Wayne Sandilands, the 33-year-old former Bafana Bafana custodian was ushered on. It was a recipe for disaster… but a 1-0 defeat when you’ve won 3-0 at home can hardly be described as that.

And so it was that 7,617 days after Orlando Pirates were crowned South Africa’s only African Champions League winners in 1995, there were scenes all over the continent as Pitso Mosimane became the only South African coach to conquer Africa.

Sandilands may take a bit of flak for the long-range only goal of the night… he got a hand to Ohawuchi's 64th minute shot but couldn't keep it out. Otherwise his experience showed, he was untroubled on crosses and two shots. There were two big saves off the line in the last 10 minutes.

But even if one of those had gone in, Sundowns would have won it. Khama Billiat and Anthony Laffor came close to that emphatic away goal which would have killed off Egyptian civilisation as thoroughly as the Romans once did.

New heroes have been crowned since Pitso’s men joined the rest of South Africa’s sorry bunch in crashing out of Africa. The defeat against AS Vita in the Champions League and Medeama in the Confederations Cup was forgotten when Sundowns were allowed back for the group stages after the Congolese were found to have fielded an unregistered player. 

The 26th side to win the African Champions League trophy might have entered through the back door, but once they were thrown in to the group stages, they were unstoppable, despite having to cancel off-season holidays at the last minute and re-arrange their schedule.

They beat mighty Zamalek three times out of four in the latter stages, and the last one on Sunday night didn’t matter. They went north with Colombian offensive fulcrum Leonardo Castro a long-term injury victim, but new stars have emerged, names which must be written in Sundowns stone.

Tiyani Mabunda is my favourite, hard as nails, a born leader, late to stardom at 28. And local product Percy Tau, who looked like he’d slipped out of contention until the African crusade.

Keagan Dolly, who took so long to arrive after the big move from Ajax Cape Town, worked his socks off, Kharma Billiat… well we all know how good he is.

But spare a thought for Asavela Mbekile and Bangaly Soumahoro, hardly household names, but both saved the ball off the line in the dying minutes to silence the Borg el Arab Stadium on Saturday night.

The Egyptians really thought they had a chance, even at 0-3 down. The crazy chairman Mortada Mansour said Sundowns had used muti in Tshwane, the coach Moamen Soliman said he’d resign if the White Knights didn’t produce the miracle. And away he goes, just like his predecessor Mohamed Helmi did in July when Sundowns beat them.

Keagan Dolly and Khama Billiat emerged afterwards to talk about “hard work” and “dserving to win”. Billiat confessed: “It hasn’t been a pleasant journey but we are CHAMPIONS.”

And as if to emphasise their point, two squabbling Egyptian officials were seen in the background, pushing and shoving violently. Africa isn’t for cissies. But Pitso Mosimane is no cissy.

JUSTICE MUST BE DONE: How Dennis Onyango did just that for Mamelodi Sundowns

PENALTY 1: Parker goes down

PITSO MOSIMANE didn’t have to dwell too long on the blatant attempted hi-jacking of the glittering Telkom KO cup on Wednesday afternoon. 

It happened in front of plenty of witnesses. The attempt was thwarted with some gusto. Pitso's witness statement was short, but sufficient when asked about the two shocking penalties awarded to Kaizer Chiefs by referee Khulisani Qongqo.

The Mamelodi Sundowns coach said simply: “I won’t comment on the referee. Everyone saw it.”

And that was enough. Two soft penalty decisions. Two chances for South Africa’s biggest football team to get back in the game. And Dennis Onyango saved them both to scoop the Man of the Match award with the broadest of smiles.

Qongqo is no beginner. He’s a FIFA sanctioned referee and has done big games in his career, though it’s hard to find out much about South Africa officials generally. I do know he was nominated for PSL referee of the year in 2014 and he’s had overseas assignments.

But what we saw on Reconciliation Day, with 52,000 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, felt like a calculated attempt to alter the course of the game. For a start, when Chiefs were struggling in the first half, he was slow to act on a series of nasty challenges. He failed to control the game which was, frankly, awful, after the opening goal.

After half-time things brightened up. But Sundowns were always in control. Then Qongqo tried to even things up on the hour mark.

PENALTY 2: ball hits Nthethe's upper arm

The first penalty, when Bernard Parker fell over Thabo Nthethe, was distinctly dodgy. Nthethe was simply suckered in, Parker cut across him and went down. Ashley Young of Manchester United is an expert in this sphere.

Ignoring the furore, Siphiwe Tshabalala stepped up and struck it well, but Ugandan Onyango went the right way and parried.

Just 13 minutes later, Reneilwe Letsholonyane broke in to the box. His effort made contact with the unfortunate Nthethe’s arm, Qongqo hesitated… then pointed to the spot once more. Nthethe was floored at the time, the ball made contact with the top of his arm. Never a penalty.

This time substitute Camaldine Abraw, who was eager to take the first spot kick, stepped up… only for Onyango to save again.

By this time Sundowns captain Nthethe had already put his side 2-0 up with a well-taken header after Colombian Leonardo Castro’s early opener.

To their credit Chiefs, a shadow of the side which won the PSL title with a record 69 points last season, soldiered on despite these two huge blows to morale.

Even when Hlompho Kekaha made it 3-0 to Mosimane’s men to complete his perfect set of PSL silverware, Chiefs found their way to goal in injury time, for a late consolation from Abraw.

But in truth, they were never in it. Pule Ekstein, finally given the chance to show us what he’s got on the biggest stage, failed dismally. He went off with Edward Manqele and Lucky Baloyi in the 54rd minute, in a flurry of changes which left the officials in confusion.

The ever-articulate Steve Komphela tried to explain afterwards: “I can’t sit on the bench and do nothing. You have to react to what is happening. But when their second goal went in, I decided to change all three.”

The confusion ended with a yellow card… and then those two penalty saves.

Onyango explained afterwards: “We’ve been doing a lot of work on penalties. My team-mates were reminding me which way to go for both of them. Because we are a team.”

That’s all very well. After Jody February saved FOUR spot kicks to see our U23s to the Olympics last weekend, this was more of the glorious same.

But my question is: What if BOTH of those dodgy spot kicks had been successfully converted? Chiefs, outplayed and lacklustre throughout the first half, would have been back on level terms.

The R4m cheque from Telkom - shared between the players and technical staff by Sundowns’ understandably generous billionaire owner Patrice Motsepe - would have been torn away from Pitso’s men, who had never beaten Chiefs in a final.

And Komphela, who claimed afterwards his side might have won 5-3 if they had scored those penalties and “three one-on-ones”, would have won his first EVER trophy in 30 years as a player and coach.

My question is this: would the urbane Komphela have treasured his moment, given the referee’s two enthusiastically given spot kicks?

Would justice have been done? I’ve watched both decisions again and again. The first was questionable; no referee would give a second penalty 13 minutes later the way Qongqa did. Not in my experience.

On SuperSport TV, analyst Zane Moosa tried to tell us “The referee was Kaizer Chiefs Man of the Match” but he was cut short. Neither penalty was given a good look in the aftermath. But we only need the words of Pitso: “Everybody saw it.” You did, I did. If you remove the estimated 15 million pairs of gold-tinted glasses, we all did.

But hey. It’s Reconciliation Day. Dennis the Menace saved us from having to consider the dreaded conclusion: Our football is manipulated. Right in front of our eyes. Just like those friendlies before the 2010 World Cup.

For now we can simply tweet #komphelamustfall and think it will make it all better. We can ask why Morgan Gould, after months on the sidelines, was drafted in as centre-back ahead of Siyanda Xulu after Tower Mathoho's ankle injury. 

But remember Pitso running for cover after Sundowns lost to Golden Arrows in September? And remember how Bobby Motaung got rid of coach Stuart Baxter, player of the season Tefu Mashamaite and top-scorer Mandla Masango just a few weeks after that epic title win?

For both those reasons: the AmaKhosi must be patient. Chiefs have lost more cup finals this season (two) than they have PSL games (one)… there is still hope.

But if referees like Khulisani Qongqo continue to given the big games, our football will have no hope at all.