Hlompo Kekana has emulated his childhood hero Mark Fish by becoming an African club champion. And he is proud to have done it captaining the Mamelodi Sundowns team that ended a 21-year drought in the competition for South African teams since Fish and his Orlando Pirates team-mates lifted the 1995 Champions Cup. Kekana has been as instrumental as anyone for Sundowns in their run to the 2016 Caf Champions League final and in the 3-1 aggregate victory over Zamalek here‚ following Downs’ 1-0 second leg defeat at Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria on Sunday. The big defensive midfielder’s combination in the middle with Tiyani Mabunda has protected Downs’ one slight weak point – an efficient put not perfect back four – and also been instrumental ensuring the Brazilians turned defence into attack swiftly. And Kekana‚ now‚ like Fish‚ has a Champions League gold medal to hang on his trophy wall at home. “Mark Fish is my hero – he won this competition while I was still at school‚” Kekana said. “He was my inspiration when I was young. And look at me now – I’m an African champion and winning captain of Sundowns.” Sundowns ran through walls to restrict a Zamalek side fired up by a fantastically noisy 70 000 home crowd to just Stanley Owahuchi’s 65th minute goal‚ and preserving their 3-0 lead earned in the first leg in Atteridgeville. Kekana said holding their nerve in front of the hostile home support was the element coach Pitso Mosimane drummed into his players all week. “There wasn’t much concern. The only concern was the crowd. But the motivation was that we were in the final‚ and had three goals‚” Downs’ soft-spoken captain said. “We came to Egypt knowing that if we didn’t concede in the first half we stood a chance of lifting the trophy. That’s what we strived for. “We knew this was our last 90 minutes to go through to win it. “We did ourselves justice scoring the three goals at home. It was going to be very naïve of us to open the game in that crucial stage where we had 90 minutes to go. “We knew if we stuck to our plan and didn’t allow them to come into our box a lot‚ we could hold them. And we did that. “We knew if we focus‚ on the field of play it would only be 11 against 11. We kept ourselves professional and I’m proud of the performance of the boys. “In our early games we had some problems in the Champions League. We saw it wasn’t easy and we had to change our approach and how we played games.” Downs‚ clad smartly in their team suits‚ had come out for a pre-match walkabout on the pitch to absorb the atmosphere‚ so it was not a surprise to them when they later stepped out of the change room. Some spectators hurled bottles of water at them as they re-entered the tunnel. Kekana said the stroll did the trick‚ though. “It worked for us because we wanted to see what was there for us. South Africans are very passionate about football‚ but we’re not hostile like what we saw from the Egyptians. “It’s a lesson for us as players. These kinds of experiences we’re going to cherish for the rest of our lives.” * Marc Strydom is in Egypt as a guest of Mamelodi Sundowns - TMG Digital..