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Maybe this is not the season for ‘La Decima’: Mosimane

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Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane was honest about Wednesday night’s result where they lost 1-0 to Orlando Pirates and the damage it has caused to the defense of their Absa Premiership title.

The loss means that Sundowns remains nine points behind log leaders Kaizer Chiefs after 17 games played.

Amakhosi are also on +17 goal difference compared to Sundowns’ +9 goal difference.

For two teams that occupy the top two spots on the log, goal difference could be an issue come end of the season especially with a Bidvest Wits team which is doing well in catching up.

But Mosimane realizes that the programme is not going to be easy for them leading to the finishing line.

Coming to this season, the talk was about Sundowns going for the La Decima (Spanish word for 10th league title) after picking up their record PSL era ninth league title last season.

With the form of Chiefs and the demanding schedule of the CAF Champions League where they’ve qualified for the quarterfinals already, Mosimane says maybe it’s not necessary to target the La Decima this season.

There’s no doubt that Mosimane has dominated the local football scene in the last couple of years, counting nine titles-four league trophies and the maiden CAF Champions League title since joining Sundowns seven years ago.

According to him, it was a beautiful sight seeing Chiefs and Pirates fans united on the stands as they were looking for a result that would be favourable to the two Soweto giants. But banter aside, Mosimane is slowly realising that it won’t be easy to defend their league title this season especially after last night’s result and a big Tshwane derby coming up this weekend.

Mosimane was satisfied with the performance of referee Victor Gomes in this game except the incident of Vincent Pule’s foul on Motjeka Madisha which he felt warranted a red card.

The substitution of Andile Jali at half-time was expected, especially after he was cautioned in the first half for an over the top tackle. It was Jali’s first visit to Orlando Stadium as a regular since he left Pirates, but Mosimane says he also had to protect him because off the field, the past two weeks hadn’t been easy for him.


Report by Velile Mnyandu

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