The PSL, South Africa’s Premier League, enjoyed a dramatic finale yesterday.
Once again, Mamelodi Sundowns and coach Pitso Mosimane have proved their dominance in the local scene.
The PSL’s last day reached a boiling point. Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns were head to head with 56 points each, with the Chiefs having a better goal difference than the Brazilians, in three goals, were leading the table.
In the relegation battles, the situation was boiling too as well. As Polokwane already relegated, three teams were fighting for survival, AmaZulu, Black Leopards and Baroka FC, with -11, -13, and -14 goal difference, respectively. Mamelodi Sundowns played Black Leopards, while Kaizer Chiefs played away at Baroka. The stage was ready and prepared for some serious drama.
Throughout the longest season in South African football history, Kaizer Chiefs was leading the table at the majority of the season - 379 days (!). The Chiefs haven’t won the local title since 2015, and the passionate Soweto fans were eager and sure that 2020 would be their year.
Mamelodi, guided by South Africa’s most notable coach in the past decade, Pitso Mosimane, had no problems beating the Leopards 3-0, with a hat-trick by Lebohang Maboe. Sundowns did they did their share to add another title in their winning run in recent years.
Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs were struggling against Baroka.
On the 39th minute, Chiefs went 1-0 up thanks to a goal by ex-Sundowns and Zimbabwean star, Khama Billiat. In this scenario, they were the champions for the first time in five years, but on the one hour mark, Baroka equalized through Manuel Kambala. In this situation, Mamelodi went on top of the league, for the first time in the 2019/20 season, 30 minutes before it shuts down.
Amakhosi tried but couldn’t. The result remained until the full-time whistle, and Masandawana has won the South African title, despite leading the table only 30 minutes through the whole season!
”The final day of the PSL was definitely one of the most memorable in a long time”, says Lorenz Köhler, Kickoff journalist. Although for the outside viewer Chiefs were favourites to win the title before the final matchday, Köhler emphasizes a different analysis. “I can honestly say that I was expecting chiefs to bottle it. Since the restart of the season they buckled off the mind games of Pitso Mosimane”, he adds. “The writing was on the wall. Chiefs were showing a lack of confidence in every match since the restart, while Sundowns had no pressure on them, and their belief and help them all the way”.
PITSO MOSIMANE, SOUTH AFRICAN COACHING LEGEND
Köhler's comment on Mosimane's mind games came for a reason.
With this title, Mamelodi Sundowns has completed an epic decade. The yellow & green club has won five titles, one South African Nedbank Cup, a CAF Champions League and a CAF Supercup titles in the past decade. Eight significant titles in ten years.
This was the reason that the happiest man in Tshwane, Sundowns' city, is Pitso Mosimane - Mamelodi's coach.
"Of course it is very emotional", he told Supersport after the match. "'La Decima', I think it's the best way to wave the league a goodbye...I think we've won it the most," he added per Soccer Laduma.
Mosimane is one of the rising names in African football in recent years. Mosimane that played for Mamelodi as a player is becoming a club idol and idol in the club.
Since he joined Sundowns in 2012, after he was Carlos Alberto assistant in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, succeeded the Brazilian and guiding the Bafana Bafana himself for two years. Back then, African fans did not know what to expect from the coach, but soon they received an answer.
He won five PSL titles, and in the years he lost it, Mamelodi finished as a runner-up;
He won the South African Nedbank Cup in 2015 and added the Telekom Cup twice in 2015 and 2019;
But more significant was his impact on the continental level.
"Pitso Mosimane is the most successful coach in the PSL history", Köhler says. "There is nobody that reached five league titles, and he can secure a treble next week, something that hasn't been achieved in South African football for ten years. That definitely puts him there with the greats".
In 2016 he guided the team for a historical CAF Champions League against Zamalek and won African Coach of the year award. On 2018 and 2019 he reached the last stages of the competition after a series of severe battles with club such Al-Ahly Cairo and Wydad Casablanca. All in all, he has guided Sundowns for Champions League football in seven consecutive seasons. It was there when he also made some controversial comments on the racial relations of African football.
The intrigues between the 'North' and the rest of the continent are always present in later stages of continental competitions. As a psychological warfare maestro, Mosimane took advantage of the situation to attracts attention to him, rather than his players.
These, together with impressive results against few of Africa's best, made him a 'name' of sophisticated tactician and mind-games master among the North African clubs. Until today, the fans of Egypt's and Morocco's big clubs are sharing Pitso great respect for his coaching abilities.
"He even got a standing ovation in Casablanca from Wydad fans. That's something unheard of in North Africa towards a rival coach, to get such a reception there!", Köhler rekindles.
With 11 team titles in eight years in South Africa, Mosimane is becoming a famous name in Africa.
But can the coach become a familiar face worldwide as well?
“Pitso is larger than life personality and is always going to get attention”, Kohler concludes. “But to say he will become a world-renowned? I think it’s a bit stip, especially because South African football doesn’t get the same amount of attention as North African football”.
“If he continues in Sundowns for ten more years to come and keep winning titles, his story will be told worldwide. In five years it would be a whole different story to tell if he continues like that, but right now I don’t see it”.
It is not easy to break into the worldwide football awareness, but Pitso Mosimane is building a dynasty in South Africa. With a few more successful seasons with Sundowns or maybe a high-profile role in one of the mega-clubs in the north of the continent can make Mosimane even more famous among the global football community.
Of course, the right mentality, psychological skills, luck and timing are crucial in the football reality, but as the last day of the PSL season has shown us, this epic South African coach, a true legend of the game in the making, has all of them by his side as well.
Photo via Pitso Mosimane official Twitter account.
