TS Galaxy head coach Sead Ramovic has launched a scathing attack against Mamelodi Sundowns’ Rulani Mokwena ahead of their Carling Knockout semi-final against AmaZulu.
Galaxy beat Sundowns in the first round on penalties in a heated clash at Mbombela Stadium, where the DStv Premiership champions were without their seven Bafana Bafana players who were on international duty in Abidjan before the African Football League opener.
The Rockets led 2-0 but the game was forced to penalties as Sundowns fought back before the home side eventually won the shootout to reach the quarter-final, where they also advanced beyond Sekhukhune via another penalty shoot-out.
But when speaking about their inconsistent season, he opened up on their lack of natural finishers in the squad and perhaps some poor officiating, but he stated he will never make excuses for defeats, suggesting Mokwena did such after their win in the competition.
“We were very unlucky against Royal AM, I think that we had 15 opportunities in front of the goal and we did not score,” Ramovic said at the Carling Media event.
“Yes, it’s in the end maybe some quality because you have to score but this is not only that we have the problem. Also, many other teams have this kind of problem in front of the goal and they also miss a lot but if you look at Supersport, our mistakes and we concede poor goals so it was very unlucky.
“Not good of us. If you watch Richards Bay very, very unlucky no and of course also poor decisions from the referees. But all in all, we don’t want to find any excuse like other coaches do.
“[For] example, when we won against Sundowns, what were the excuses from the opponent? What was the excuse from the coach from the opponent? He didn’t play with seven players, right? So how is this the respect for the players that played?
“National [team] players. What’s the one you bought for 60 million? Allende. Then you bought the guy from Stellenbosch, how much they paid? 12 million.
“So and then you have Zungu, then you have a lot of other national players and you come up with an excuse to disrespect my staff, my players, myself?
“I think that a good very strong coach will not find an excuse, he will say, ‘fantastic job from Galaxy, they did a fantastic game plan, they beat us, and we show respect’.
“What did he do? Try to find excuses because he did not have seven players. But he also I think disrespects their own team, their own players, because if you say that he cannot win with this kind of players that they have, any other team.”
Ramovic went on to state that the squad Sundowns put out against his side could win the league and that they will likely beat Masandwana again when they meet this season.
“I think the team that played against us can win the league. Top players, unbelievable. So it means that we also do a fantastic job, I don’t have an excuse that we sold seven players.
“I play with the players we find, good ones, young ones, NFD [players], U23 and try to improve. And this is the way it is. So we are very happy to win against Sundowns. The first time we won against him, was when we played Catenaccio – where I could not understand Catenaccio.
“Now because of some players [not there], I can promise that we will win against them again – when we play against them. But this is another story. We won [Sundowns] because we deserved it.
“I hear they did not play well when we won, I don’t hear they could not play better because we didn’t allow them to play better. So we also deserve credit, you know me? When we lose, I give credit to the opponent and the coaching staff of the opponent.
“It’s time they also praise us for a good game, for a great win but this is another story now we have a cup 0 and again AmaZulu, fantastic coach, strong team.”
