Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has taken cognisance that supporters get hurt when the Brazilians fail to win and respects their concern. But he’s asked to be given time to build a great team.
|||
It is the day before the match many view as potentially season-deciding, but the man tasked with ensuring it doesn’t turn out that way is relaxation personified.
Pitso Mosimane sits at his home watching a recorded match of his favourite basketball team, the San Antonio Spurs. His mind far removed from the next day’s pick of the Absa Premiership clashes – Mamelodi Sundowns’ visit to runaway leaders Kaizer Chiefs – Mosimane speaks animatedly about his desire to build a legacy at the Brazilians.
That there are those who even feel failure to beat Chiefs today could see his position as coach of Sundowns becoming precarious is the least of his worries, Mosimane content in the knowledge that he has the backing of his president Patrice Motsepe and the club’s board.
“I’m settled,” he says of his position at Sundowns. “I have the backing of the management because they know what I’m doing.”
The Sundowns fans who have recently been on his case following some indifferent results would argue they also know what he is doing – gifting the league title to Chiefs.
Positioned fifth, Mosimane’s champions are a massive 12 points behind Chiefs with a third of the season played. They go to FNB Stadium this afternoon to face the unbeaten Amakhosi on the back of three successive draws – good reason for the fans to call for his head, surely! More so if he doesn’t stop the runaway train that is Chiefs today.
Mosimane feels that’s a simplistic way to look at things. But he has been in the game too long to know that and appreciate there will always be a section of the fans that get their knickers in a knot when their team don’t do well.
“It’s the minority among the fans who are pushing some agenda. And you know how mob psychology can work. But I’m not worried because this has happened before. Last season when we lost to Wits, they were calling for me to go, but the very same fans were the first to celebrate when we won the league.”
He does acknowledge, however, that fans get hurt when their beloved team don’t do well.
“I understand and feel for them. They want their bragging rights among fans of the other teams; they spend their money to come and watch us play and they expect us to make them happy. But even Barcelona are wobbling. They (the fans) need to understand that you can’t be on honeymoon every day.
“And fortunately, I have a board that has assured me they will not allow our supporters to do what they did to previous coaches and force them out. They know that we are building, they’ve said to me, ‘lay a solid foundation for a great Sundowns’ – and not just for one season but for many more seasons to come.”
That they won the league last season was perhaps a bit premature.
“We won the league and unfortunately that has made the fans expect too much too soon. But they need to remember that just last season, this team did not play in the MTN8; last season, this team got knocked out in the first round of the Telkom Knockout. But we won the league and because of that, we competed in the MTN8. And we were in the Telkom semi-final. And we will be mixing it up with the big fish in the Champions League.”
That the fans only get to see the team perform on match-day and judge them on results is a pity, Mosimane feels, for if they knew what went into preparing for matches such as today’s, they’d have a better appreciation.
“I give myself to Sundowns. Even my family is short-changed. I’m working very hard at filling the seven-year void the club has had to endure of no success. We’re investing and we’re relentless in our pursuit of success. If only they knew that we go out there to do our best all the time.”
To illustrate just how much work he puts into preparing his team, Mosimane stops the basketball recording to reveal the number of recordings on his PVR. He has used up 84 percent of the recording space available and almost all of that is on football matches. Most of those are of the Caf Champions League, and Mosimane admitting that the biggest prize on Sundowns’ immediate radar is the continent’s premier club competition.
“We want to build a culture here. We’re the top team in the league with six titles and this team must always go into continental tournaments and make their mark. Yes, it’s nice to say you’ve won all domestic cups but it’s not the same if you don’t win the league and the Champions League. Those are the ultimate prizes.”
And having won the local league, Mosimane would love nothing more than to add that star on top of the club badge.
“I live in that space.” He points to the screen showing his recorded Champions League matches. “I know how weak or strong my team is in relation to the other teams in the African Champions League.”
On the other wing of his open-plan house is another huge flat-screen TV and a PVR teeming with recordings of more continental matches, mainly of the lesser Confederation Cup.
“I can name you the Vita or Sewe team. I know the pitches, I know who has won the leagues in almost all the other African countries. Ask me about all the so-called little teams we are likely to play in the preliminaries and I will give you answers.”
Typical arrogant Mosimane, I hear you say! While it might sound that way, the impression one got was of a driven man stopping at nothing to ensure success for his team.
“We want to get to the group stages of the Champions League and go on to be in the top four,” he says.
And that can only be achieved through preparation, just as much as stopping Chiefs from extending their lead further will happen courtesy of the hard work that went into readying the team for this afternoon. - Saturday Star
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1z7M7zs
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire