CAFCL: Sundowns didn’t do enough to threaten Al Ahly – Hlompho Kekana

Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns FC.

Former Mamelodi Sundowns captain Hlompho Kekana has blamed the South African giants for not being aggressive enough after securing a 0-0 draw against Al Ahly in the first leg semi-final clash of the CAF Champions League at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.

The Brazilians looked the better side and enjoyed possession but they were not able to take their chances. Their performance was not pleasing to Kakena, who said Sundowns fell into the trap of the African champions, who dragged the match as long as they could.

“I think this is a match where we can easily say, Al Ahly came with a plan,” he said on SABC1 as quoted by idiskitimes. “The plan was to drag the match for as long as they can. They didn’t want Sundowns to play in their box and they did exactly that.

“If you could look at the moment of time Sundowns’ players had the ball, it’s really behind their centre-line, that’s where they wanted it. Only in the second half with the introduction of Themba [Zwane], Sales and Rayners, that’s when they started stretching the pitch and they had pockets to play.”

He continued: “But I still believe that the midfielders today played a game that is not up to their standard, simply because if you’re a midfielder at Sundowns try by all means to play those forward passes – whether the low-block, whether there are difficulties against a low-block,” he continued.

“In football language we call that negative pass when we play wide and wide, any midfielder can do that. But the soon as we try to break the line, that’s the difficult pass to play.

“I’ve seen Mamelodi Sundowns, I’ve seen Ribeiro, I’ve seen Tebza play those passes, and I’ve seen Allende play those passes together with Jayden [Adams] – not today. I thought they played cautiously in the hands of Al Ahly because the more you don’t vary your attack, the more you don’t press on the last line of defence, the better for them because they get time to regroup and to shift across.

“I thought even our build-up was slow. That on its own, it played against our team because if you don’t shift the block quick enough you don’t threaten the last line.

The two sides will face off in the return leg on Friday, April 25, at Cairo International Stadium in Egypt.