PITSO Mosimane has remained defiant in the face of a hellish fixture list, which includes two Caf Champions League trips and the Telkom Knockout final.
But the Mamelodi Sundowns coach is not blind to the mammoth task lying ahead for the Brazilians this festive season.
Mosimane couldn’t have asked for a much better start as Downs romped to a 3-0 victory over Angola’s Pedro De Luanda in their opening Caf Champions League group stage match at Loftus Stadium at the weekend.
Next is the trip to Morocco to face Wydad Casablanca on Saturday and later to Algeria to face USM Alger on 27 December.
In between the Caf expeditions is the keenly-awaited TKO final duel with Maritzburg United at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on 14 December.
However, as one Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba would say, experience is the best teacher and Mosimane has paid his “school fees” to know what the continent has in store for the PSL champions.
His task could be made all the more difficult by the spate of injuries threatening to derail the Brazilians as they seek their first TKO silverware in four years, and further progression in the Caf premier club tournament.
“We have big games coming up. We have a trip to Casablanca, then to Algeria, the Telkom Cup final as well as a big league match against Wits,” Mosimane explained.
“Thapelo (Morena) has a calf strain. We need him back. We need Denis (Onyango) back, we need Mshishi (Themba Zwane) back. Gaston Sirino is back for Caf. Mosa Lebusa has a hamstring injury.
“But we need our soldiers back. Casa is a different game. It’s like the top eight here. We just can’t crack them. They are stubborn, hey. They know how to play Champions League. I saw their game when they drew against Alger. But it’s good that they drew in Algiers. We are the only ones with maximum points at this stage.”
Mosimane has praised his charges for a job well done against the Angolans.
Goals from Mauricio Affonso, Motjeka Madisha and Sphelele Mkhulise sealed the deal.
But he felt the scoreline should have been higher with a little bit of selfishness towards the end of a match they utterly dominated.
Said Mosimane: “I was a little bit disappointed with how we finished. We could have been ruthless and scored five. If we’d scored, they’ll have to score five-plus. I’ll be a little bit selfish and say we want a zero plus three-goal difference.
“I wanted to see some aggression towards the end. It’ll be a different story in Angola. Winning away is important.”
