Mngqithi dreaming of an operation ‘vat alles’ at Sundowns
In the modern era of South African football at least, no team has ever managed to clean-sweep everything on offer in one season.
Manqoba Mngqithi, co-coach of Mamelodi Sundowns says he wants Andile Jali to stay Picture: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix.
This is something that Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes the Brazilians can achieve.
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Under the leadership of Pitso Mosimane, Sundowns have only won two competitions – the 2015 Nedbank Cup and the Telkom Knockout Cup in the same year. This season, Downs’ have already lost out in the MTN8, which was claimed by their arch-rivals SuperSport United last month. However, there is still the league cup and the Nedbank Cup to play for as they are in the semifinal of the former against Golden Arrows.
“For a team like Sundowns, it is unacceptable not to win these cup competitions. In as much as we have won the Telkom Knockout once but if you look at the number of years that we have been here, we can say maybe we deserve to have won it two or thrice,” said Mngqithi.
“The MTN8 has eluded us right through and we won the Nedbank Cup once and that concerns us. In as much as they are not our major trophies, but what should stop us from winning these trophies,” he added.
The former Golden Arrows mentor said while it was “difficult” to point out why Masandawana had failed to claim every trophy on offer, he believed that the footballing gods had a hand and Downs were often “unlucky”.
“It is very difficult to know but at times we are just unlucky. Last year we played against Cape Town City in the TKO and we conceded a goal that we should have not conceded and we were knocked out and nobody talks about that. This season we had stories against SuperSport and we did not win that one. It is just a pity because we would like to win every competition and we do have the team to win all these trophies,” said Mngqithi.
“But in football, at times we even think cups are meant for certain teams because God is trying to balance the equation. There are teams that always do well in cup competitions but you never ever see them in the league. We are trying to rectify that and we always go for everything we can get and fortunately at times we win and at times we don’t win. It would be nice at a certain point in one league season where we can win all three cup competitions and the league… but at times we must not be too greedy and we must accept that God has got his mysterious ways.
“I always believe that the team we have every season has got the capacity to win all four. We have had bad schedules in the past where the Champions League overlapping through and not giving the team a chance to have pre-season. This season we are having a much better program in terms of the team getting some rest like the other team but the congestion is a little bit tough for us because we will be in Nigeria on Christmas day.”
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