It was always going to be a battle of wits.
And it turned out exactly that way — that is, the Caf Champions League quarterfinal first leg between reigning champions Al Ahly and Mamelodi Sundowns at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday.
For me the game looks over for Manqoba Mngqithi’s team, after Sundowns former head coach Pitso Mosimane, now mentor of the Egyptian giants, outwitted Mngqithi, co-head coach Rulani Mokwena and senior coach Steve Komphela.
Mngqithi seemed reluctant to admit defeat after losing the first leg 2-0. In his post-match analysis Mngqithi said: “We’re a team capable of scoring a lot of goals. The only setback is that we conceded two goals. If we had conceded one, I would easily believe we could come back stronger.”
It’s a sober admission by one of SA’s most wily coaches. They should have been more careful not to concede that last minute strike by Salah Mohsen, when they were pushing hard to cancel out Taher Mohamed’s exquisite goal that broke the deadlock in the first half.
It’s hard to sell hope, but Sundowns supporters should be grateful they have a coach who’s prepared to take the fight to Ahly.
In consoling himself, Mngqithi offered some hope to the club’s fans when he suggested there could be a way back at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday. “They’re not a defensive team. They’re normally a very offensive team, so if they come at us in Pretoria, I don’t see them lasting 90 minutes.”
It’s hard to sell hope, but Sundowns supporters should be grateful they have a coach who’s prepared to take the fight to Ahly.
Mngqithi and company will be the first ones to admit how hard it’s going to be to turn the tables on Ahly, the same team that beat them last year on their way to winning their ninth Champions League title.
Ironically, it was Mosimane who was sitting on the Sundowns bench when Sundowns lost the first leg of the quarterfinal tie 2-0 in Egypt and only managed a 1-1 draw in Pretoria.
“If we play with Ahly spirit, like how the team played against Sundowns last year, then I don’t have any doubt about my team,” said Mosimane.
But Mngqithi seems to suggest the current Sundowns team are better than the one that lost to Ahly last year, after saying they’re capable of scoring not just one goal, but many.
The problem for Sundowns is that Ahly, with their dependable skipper and goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy, don’t only have to rely on Mosimane alone to know how to deal with Sundowns.
One thing is for sure, Ahly will break Sundowns’ attacks immediately after they’ve crossed the centre line. Ahly will, as they did in the second half in Cairo, give Sundowns all the ball possession and only look to attack them on the counter — exactly as they did with Monseh’s winner.
But even with that in mind, Mngqithi was adamant that Ahly will be playing with fire if they approach the second leg the same way they did in the final 45 minutes in Cairo.
“I don’t think they’re very good at defending in and around the box when they’re playing too deep in their half, which I think made us play a better second half in Cairo.”
One thing that Mngqithi got right in Cairo was to control the proceedings and tempo of the match. But being on top football-wise doesn’t always translate into winning, as Mngqithi admitted after Saturday’s defeat.
Mosimane, knowing his team’s limitations and the altitude factor, won’t mind playing a worse game than in Cairo, as long as they book their place in the last four.
The Ahly coach has been heavily criticised by some of the club’s former players, some even suggesting he doesn’t add anything to the team.
Mosimane won last weekend’s game through the sheer brilliance of his versatile defensive midfielder Aliou Dieng, the orchestrator of Ahly’s first goal and the breaker of many of Sundowns’ promising attacks.
The question for Mngqithi going to Saturday’s game is how they’re going to get past Malian born Dieng, who together with Amr El Solia and Afsha dealt with Lebohang Maboe, Sphelele Mkhulise and Rivaldo Coetzee, the players Sundowns had earmarked to feed Peter Shalulile, Gaston Sirino and Gift Motupa.
Dieng’s biggest threat is his long pinpoint passing to the forwards, as he did for Taher in the opening goal. He’s the type of player that Sundowns don’t have, as Mkhulise, Maboe and Coetzee are more suited to short passing build-ups.
Sundowns’ skipper Hlompho Kekana, who’s been kept on the bench for most of this season, is the only Sundowns midfielder close to matching Dieng.
But other than dealing with Dieng’s threat, Mngqithi knows from previous encounters with Ahly that a lot of time will be wasted by their antics, with all the 11 Ahly players at some point during the match feigning injury and taking the longest of time to recover.
The only way for Sundowns to counter these antics will be to find an early goal and a second one, preferably before halftime. That’s the only way Mngqithi’s team can record a dramatic comeback against the continent’s “Club of the Century”.
Sundowns can put a stop to Ahly’s shenanigans if they can score those two equalising goals and then go for the jugular in the final half.
I should warn, though, that this match could well turn out to be a damp squib – in sharp contrast to what we saw in Egypt last week, where Dieng was on top of his game, neutralising a slick Sundowns attack that looked dangerous right until Mohsen killed the game on the stroke of full-time.
But in Manqoba (the one who wins), every Sundowns fan should believe a miracle can still happen.
Let’s wait and see.
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