Siyethemba Sithebe of Kaizer Chiefs is challenged by Sphelele Mkhulise and Thembinkosi Lorch of Mamelodi Sundowns during the DStv Premiership match at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday. ©Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
THREE-FIVE-TWO
IF ONLY Mamelodi Sundowns had been as ruthless against Esperance as they were against Kaizer Chiefs. If only the Brazilians were as incisive with their passing at Loftus Versfeld last week as they were at the FNB Stadium on Thursday night. If only Rulani Mokwena’s boys played with the same appetite for victory. If only they were as precise with their finishing.
If only...
Sundowns secured a seventh successive league title with a 5-1 hammering of Amakhosi two days ago. They are yet to lose after 24 matches and could well create PSL history by going unbeaten all season. It is a remarkable run that confirms their status as the country’s best.
But as they enthusiastically celebrated their championship success, I suspect they must have had a gnawing feeling within them.
If only we’d been half this good against Esperance.
Of course, it is brilliant that they won the domestic championship. Surely though, it is continental glory Sundowns most crave. They were within touching distance of it. And a performance as compellingly clinical as the one they dished out against Chiefs would have seen them get the better of Esperance, wouldn’t it?
That they did not and could not confirms just how huge the gap in standard is between our league and the Champions League. While Sundowns easily toy with local opposition, even when Mokwena is using his second string team, they struggle to break down continental opposition.
Lest that stellar showing against Chiefs has erased your memory, let me remind you that Sundowns failed to find the opposition net in their last four Champions League matches. The Brazilians drew goalless against Simba in the quarter-finals before winning via the shoot-out from the penalty spot and then lost 1-0 in each of the two semi-final legs. Their best football was just not good enough against Africa’s top sides.
It must surely give Mokwena food for thought. Does he continue to play the beautiful football that “would make my grandfather proud” though failing to deliver the trophy he so covets, or does he go the pragmatic route of playing to win rather than to impress?
That performance against Chiefs is likely to see the young coach sticking to his guns. But he has to realise that Amakhosi are way below the likes of Simba, Esperance, Wydad and Al Ahly in quality.
That he is from a lineage of great footballers – grandpa Scara, father Julius Sono and uncle Jomo Sono were fantastic attacking players – cannot be denied. But what’s the use of being married to a way if it is not delivering the desired results?
Granted it is a pleasure watching Sundowns living up to the game’s moniker of “the Beautiful Game”, but when it fails to see them past Esperance, as it did recently, what’s the point?
Perhaps when it comes to Champions League football, Mokwena should take a leaf out of the book of a man who once occupied the same seat at Sundowns and learn that “there’s no room for comments in the results column”.
If only so he can add that second star above the club’s crest.