Analysis of South African Football Team

First, you'll play at three in the afternoon.

And you'll hear some rather strange cheering.

The most beautiful football in Africa, ever.

There is no competition whatsoever. Football

is very beautiful in every sense of the word,

with its pros and cons. The pros are obvious,

very open football, very fluid football,

At times, you'll feel like you're watching Manchester City.

The problem is that the south, uh, South Africa in general, and this is just my personal opinion

really, I mean, a lot of people may d-disagree with me on this.

They're not teams, although they've been doing it lately, but they're teams that

sometimes take huge risks on the pitch for reasons that sometimes don't

warrant it. I mean, you'll find, for example, a number of passes in the

penalty

area or in front of the penalty area, and it wasn't worth that much.

I understand that sometimes you need to take a risk to break the press, open up the pitch, and so on.

No, they have a constant tendency to take risks ever since Mosimane, which was after

That's Al Ahly's path in Egypt, and I think it's the path of, uh—

Al Ahly's path, like—what?

And the man's name was Mokoena, his name was— I forgot what his name was, this man was behind

some of the finest football I've ever seen in my life, Sundowns.

They went through a period, I don't know who made the decision here, when they brought in Hugo Broos, a Belgian coach.

An old one, I mean, old-school. They played something that was really awful.

But that's Sundowns' usual pattern,

a three p.m. match,

No, three o'clock is very important— you'll feel as if something is wrong, and the football is

beautiful. Beating them at their stadium isn't easy, honestly, not at all.

I mean, for anyone, even the biggest defeats, I mean, they beat Zamalek

three at their stadium, they beat Al Ahly five at their stadium.

And I think they have—besides that, they have other results.

At times, North African teams could come away with a draw,

for example, Wydad could go and snatch a draw. Beating them at their stadium is hard, not impossible, but

hard, hard, hard, hard. A football team, a football team.

They’re beautiful, extraordinarily so.

Not in a naïve way, though there’s a touch of naivety sometimes, but they’re a strong team,

very strong.

But teams like Sundowns, you can catch them at times, because they’re a team

that sells players.

Naturally, a team has to sell players. So if you catch them just before they se—

I mean, they’ve sold players and haven’t yet become a team, you can do something against them.

But overall, they’re a difficult challenge.

The conditions are different too, you’re playing— as soon as you turn on the match,

you’ll feel

that it’s three p.m. It’s always known with Sundowns, this three p.m. thing.

You know—

Why is every match at three p.m.?

There was a man— Yeah, it’s well known. No, no, it’s history, Sundowns at three

p.m.

The misery begins at three p.m. No, they’re a very difficult team.