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Perhaps because of the facts, the Egyptian fans forgot the name of Betsu Musimani, the South African coach, which caused him to miss the 2012 African Cup of Nations. But they knew him well in 2016.
Fate led the Mamelodi Sundowns to the CAF Champions League quarter-finals after a fatal clerical error, the Congolese Vita Club expelled them from the tournament and brought the South African national team back to life.
Before his confrontation with Zamalek, Musimani had played twice against the same team in the group stage, winning 1-0 and 2-1. He then won the first leg of the final 3-0 and lost in the second leg 1-0 and has not played against him since.
Who is Betso Musimani, the most prominent candidate to take over Al-Ahly’s training, succeeding Renee Fyler?
The former Super Sport United manager quickly began his career in the coaching world after retiring from soccer. Musimane was a midfielder and an international, like the Sundowns twice, and also played for Al Sadd Qatar before his retirement.
After starting his career as a coach at SuperSport United 2001-2007, he assumed the assignment of assistant to the South African team for 4 years, as he was coach of Super Sports from 2006-2010, then he led the national team for two years.
To refresh the memory of the Egyptian masses, Musimani temporarily took over the South African team during 2006 while searching for a new coach before the appointment of Carlos Alberto Pereira.
During that time Mosimane led the national team in 7 matches. Most notably for us, the friendly match against Egypt in November 2006, which the Pharaohs won 1-0 at the time, playing 4-1-2-1-2.
The South African coach faced Egypt twice after 5 years when he managed the South African team as a permanent coach, at the time Egypt was in the same group as South Africa, winning the first leg 1-0 and tied behind.
In the match that the pharaohs lost, it was Hassan Shehata, the legendary coach, who led the national team and the formation was as follows:
Goalkeeper: Essam El-Hadary
Defender: Mahmoud Fathallah, Ahmed Fathy – Wael Jumaa – Ahmed Al Muhammadi – Syed Moawad
Medium: Hosni Abd Rabbo – Mohamed Shawky – Hussam Ghaly
The attack: Mahmoud Abdel-Razek Shikabala and Mr. Hamdi.
And the trio of Muhammad Zidan, Muhammad Naji Gedo and Muhammad Abu Trika participated from the bench.
In the game without goals the formation was:
Goalkeepers: Urban
Defense: Fathallah – Fathy – Wael Jumaa – Moawad – Al-Mohammadi
Medium: Hosni Abed Rabbo, Husam Ghali and Sheikabala
The Attack: Ahmed Abdel Zahir – Mohamed Zidan
And from the bench, Mohamed Naji Gedo, Ahmed Ali (current Enppi forward) and Amr Al-Suliya.
Memories of the Al-Ahly clashes
His first meeting with Al-Ahly with the Sundowns brought back a very painful memory, the 5-0 as the greatest defeat in the history of the African club in the quarterfinals of the Champions 2019, in addition to two 1-0 defeats in the same year. Then during the current tournament, when Al-Ahly knocked him out of the same round with a 2-0 win, then a 1-1 draw.
How did Mosimane turn Sundowns into an all-title contender?
Immediately after taking office, Musimane gradually got to know his team, and since then the team has been indomitable towards the South African coach.
Sundowns had not won a tournament for 4 years and when Mosimane took over the main objective was not to relegate the team because they finished the 2012-2013 season in 10th place with 39 points.
In the 2013-2014 season, the team signed with players like Rashid, Somalia, Khama Pelat and others, almost 13 players, after which they had a great season, as they were 10 points behind the leaders Kaizer Chiefs, but the team he continued his search and won the title, to be the perfect start that followed. Achievements.
In the following season, the deals continued and he won the “Nedbank” Cup, as well as the “Telecom Knockout” Cup, then won the league title 5 times, including three in a row for 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.
Pitso mosimane
“How many coaches have won the MTN 8 Cup in South Africa? Many, even I did it 10 years ago, but how many coaches won the Champions League?” Pitso Mosimane said.
Musimane’s battalion edged out the Chken Inn in the early elimination stages, then the Congolese Leopards in the first elimination round, then the Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Luck played a big part with Sundowns, who had said goodbye to the championship for losing to Vita Club on away goal base after a 2-2 draw, but Vita involved an unregistered player in the first round, to qualify Sundowns after having played a round in the Confederation Cup playoffs.
The Sundowns were in the group of Zamalek, Enyimba and ES Setif, and won back and forth against Zamalek, and ES Setif was excluded after storming the stadium and other incidents in their match against Sundowns.
The South African team faced ZESCO United in the semi-finals and beat them, while Zamalek beat the Moroccan Wydad, and the two teams met in the final.
Musimane is a very smart coach who is always good at conveying a different image about his team, while he had built a team that dominated South Africa locally, crowned titles and had stars, he was narrowing his chances, especially against Zamalek.
In one of his statements before facing Zamalek, he said: “They are definitely going to beat us. When you face a team of their size, you must lose.”
He continued: “Winning Zamalek is like a dream, and I think everyone here now has the same belief that we can’t win them.”
Mosimane’s hope in the match is a rule that he made clear to his players: “We have nothing to lose, we have come to look good.”
He then waged a psychological war on his statements, whether in the group stage or the final, which Zamalek is fully capable of winning.
Indeed, the South African coach managed to beat Zamalek and won the title for the first time in its history, after 15 years of failure in the first attempt.
“I know teams in Africa that respect us because we have been around the whole time,” Musimane said.
“Now we understand North African football very well. My players understand it, and I understand it, but we have to overcome the situation.”
Wydad faces
The most crowned teams in the Champions League are Al-Ahly, Zamalek and Mazembe, two of them from North Africa, and what better proof that the Northern Battalion is not capable of surpassing the South again except to win whenever it has the opportunity?
Sunsets continued to dominate the main north, Al-Ahly, Zamalek, Al-Tarji and Al-Wadad, but the latter formed something of a knot.
Sundowns did not win against Wydad in 2017 or 2018 when they met either in the final elimination matches or in the group stage respectively, in the third season, Sundowns broke the knot and won 2-1 in the group stage, but came back to lose in Morocco, 1-0.
Another moment came to face one of the Champions League giants, another Egyptian rival, Al-Ahly, and managed to achieve a victory that he could not have dreamed of, with a historic result, 5-0 in the first leg that It would exclude Al-Ahly and that was how the Egyptian team won only 1-0 in the second leg.
Musimane said: “We have to understand very well how to play and face the northern clubs, how to expose them and so far we really haven’t been able to conquer them like they did.”
“In my opinion, only Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the southern countries managed to do this,” he said.
“Their budgets are 10 times better than ours, they have players who played in Europe, they have no coach, but the greatest coaches in South America and sometimes in the English Premier League,” he added.
“They pay different salaries and special flights,” he added. “Wydad travels in her private plane. It’s a big team, and there’s no question about that, but that’s a different level.”
“Playing in the Champions is very important for us, it benefits our players, and it also benefits us financially because the returns are not small,” he added.
“Northern clubs know very well how to control their system and upset their opponents. Now we are strong. We have more than 5 years of experience in these matters. It is worth knowing how this game is played.”
From 2017 to 2018, the two seasons faced Wydad 10 times, winning 3, drawing 3, and losing 4.
In the 2018-2019 group stage, Sundowns was with Wydad, winning 2-1 at home and losing 1-0 away.
The two teams met again in the semi-finals, and this is the only meeting that Mussiani Wydad featured in the semi-final.
At that point, Wydad won the first leg, 2-1, and tied in the second leg.
The two teams also met in 2017 in the round of 16 of the tournament, in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the Sundowns won the first leg, 1-0, but lost 4-2.
In other words, Sundowns never managed with Musimani to beat Wydad in the round of 16 of the African Champions League during the two times they faced him.
One of the memorable scenes where Wydad players tried to provoke him during a TV interview, but it was violent and he came out of his feelings in response.
Musimani began his angry speech: “They are doing this for us in Morocco.”
And he continued: “They harass us everywhere, it happens every time we play with them in the Champions League, we don’t even find the boys who bring the ball, are they always going to provoke us?”
He continued: “We know what we will do if we are bullied, and we will respond to the harassment.”
“They always intimidate everyone, they don’t want to lose, but when we lose, we at Wydad don’t do anything we turn out well, what’s all this?”
That angry interview was after Sundowns’ match against Wydad and their 2-1 win in the group stage of the 2018-2019 edition, the match was on January 19, 2019.
During the year 2019 alone, Sundowns faced Wydad in the January-December period in the Champions League on 5 occasions, winning one, losing two and drawing two.
The last two meetings that brought Sundowns and Wydad together in this edition’s group stage saw a goalless draw in Morocco and the Sundowns win 1-0.
In the event that Musimani takes over training Al-Ahly, and after 3 weeks, he will have a date with two fateful matches and his most outstanding records if he takes over the mission, both of Wydad’s matches on the 17th and October 23 of the same month. Two games will definitely add to his long history of fighting against Wydad. Will he be able to break the knot of the knockout rounds this time and snatch his qualifying card from Wydad for the first time?
As a historical fact, if Musimane takes over, he will become the first black African manager from the south of the continent to lead one of the best teams from the north of the continent, and that will be a great event in South Africa.
