United have the edge, says Sundowns coach Mosimane
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has downplayed the idea of home and away in the Tshwane derby between his team and archrivals SuperSport United.
Pitso Mosimane and Kaitano Tembo during the Absa Premiership match between Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
Mosimane does have a point, as the capital city giants share the Lucas Moripe Stadium for their home games.
Sundowns do have an away goal after the sides played to a 1-1 draw in the MTN8 semifinal first leg, with the Brazilians now the home side for the second leg at the same venue this evening.
“Yes, we are playing at home, but there is no difference. The only difference is that we are using different dressing rooms. It is the same stadium, same pitch, same teams and same competition.
“Okay, we have a goal that we scored away but that goal only counts if we don’t concede a goal,” said Mosimane.
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“Jingles” went on to insist that Kaitano Tembo’s outfit have the upper hand, that United’s better scoring ratio this season gives them the edge over Masandawana.
“SuperSport United have scored about nine goals in the league and we have scored six. They are on form.
“I didn’t see their game against Cape Town City but they scored three goals and it is not easy to score three goals against them.
“We scored five goals this past weekend [in the Caf Champions League] and four another time, but domestically we are not scoring many goals.
“But we cannot compare our programme with SuperSport’s programme.
“They are a well-rested team and there will always be goals when you have the body,” said Mosimane, who went on to praise the league for scheduling the cup match in midweek – something he called for ages ago.
“I think football is going in the right direction here at home. If we play [domestic] cup games midweek, we won’t have a backlog of Absa Premiership games because the challenge with games in hand are the cup games … for us and TS Galaxy the Champions League and Confederation Cup take priority over the weekend.”
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