On Monday, Orlando Pirates assistant coach Sergio Almenara responded to Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena’s claims that Pirates always injure a player when they face each other.
Mokwena had previously mentioned that Sundowns have lost players to long-term injuries, such as former midfielder Haashim Domingo, after playing against Pirates in a pre-season Carling Black Label Cup game.
He also attributed the injury of Abubaker Nasir to the Buccaneers’ physicality after the Ethiopian got injured against Jose Riveiro’s charges last season. In a press conference, Almenara suggested that Sundowns are actually the ones with an unusually high number of fouls against them for a team that plays possession-based football.
“The data says the last time we played against Sundowns they committed 24 fouls and Pirates committed six,” Almenara said.
“The data also says that Sundowns’ average fouls per game is almost 17, in the top two, in both competitions, PSL and MTN8 and in a possession-based team, you should calculate how much time they are out of possession, divided by the number of fouls they are committing.”
The Brazilians’ senior coach Manqoba Mngqithi, who was sitting next to Almenara in the press conference, also had his say on the matter and suggested that their fouls are tactical fouls and that they do not harm anyone with those fouls.
“We have not really harmed any opposition with those fouls, those are the fouls to make sure we don’t lose the balance in transition and that we’re in a better shape to be able to deal with a counter-attack,” Mngqithi said.
With the MTN8 final between Pirates and Sundowns set to take place on Saturday, both teams will be looking to put the fouls and injuries aside and focus on the task at hand.
