Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates will represent South Africa in this year’s African Champions League. Nick Said takes a look at their history in the competition and their prospects for the coming campaign.
South Africa once again have two We take a look at their history in the representatives in the African Cham- pions League this season and unlike the past few years, when unfancied sides AmaZulu and Cape Town City took part, it is two of the country’s heavyweights who fly the flag on the continent.
Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates are two former winners of the competition and comfortably South Africa’s most accomplished entrants down the years. They are also the best placed of the current DStv Premiership teams to have a go at the title.
We take a look at their history in the competition and their prospects for the coming campaign.
MAMELODI SUNDOWNS
This is the trophy Sundowns covet the most, but it has frustratingly eluded them after they won in 2016, with two semifinal appearances and four losses in the quarterfinals since then.
They have made an unhappy habit of breezing through the pool stages and then coming unstuck in the knockout rounds, but, to be fair, they have had some tough draws.
But given the enormous investment made in players and support staff, it is a growing frustration within the club that the continental crown has not been won in seven years.
When Sundowns won the domestic treble in 2021/22, picking up the league title, MTN8 and Nedbank Cup titles, it was suggested by some
that the season should be considered a failure as they had not also been successful in Africa.
That is the very high standard that has been set and to which they must live up to again this term, though once again, they go into the competition very well placed.
They have an excellent squad packed with players who have good experience in the Champions League, as well as some fine new additions. There really is no excuse for failure.
“We will continue with this dream. We will win the Champions League. It might not be next season, but we will eventually win the Champions League,” Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena said.
“We will win it by playing according to the culture, because if you want to change the style of football, you will have to take out a lot of what speaks to this club. The colours and the nickname attached to this club are synonymous with a certain style of play.”
ORLANDO PIRATES
Pirates return to Africa’s top table for the first time since the 2018/19 season after they finished runners-up in the DStv Premiership in the previous campaign.
They won Africa’s elite club competition at the very first go in 1995, famously claiming a 1–0 win against Ivory Coast league winners ASEC in Abidjan when no one gave them much hope.
That made them household names across Africa, but they have not been able to repeat the feat in the nearly three decades since. Perhaps that will change this year.
They do not have the dynamism of many other teams in the competition, but are organised, structured and know how to grind out results under Spanish coach José Riveiro, who excelled in his first campaign in South African football, leading them to the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup titles.
They have a squad to be competitive in the Champions League, though it will be a long, hard road if they are to be successful.
“We are going into Africa to dream that we have the potential to go all the way,” Riveiro said. “I’m a very optimistic person, so I have the intention to win it. We know we will find difficult trips, difficult opponents and difficulties from the referees, but Mamelodi Sundowns did a fantastic job in the competition and showed that it’s possible for South African teams to compete.”
WHO ELSE HAS MADE IT?
Champions Al Ahly will be defending their title and you would have to put them in amongst the front runners, even if they typically tend to start the competition slowly and then dominate in the knockout rounds. Joining them from the Egyptian capital are Pyramids FC, home of South African Fagrie Lakay. It will be their debut appearance in the Champions League.
MOROCCO
Last year’s beaten finalists Wydad Casablanca are back in the mix, but so are the team that pipped them to the 2022/23 domestic league title, AS FAR. It will be fascinating to see if the latter can make an impact, having last won this trophy in 1985.
TUNISIA
Four-time Champions League winners Espérance are in the mix, but they are not the title holders on Tunisia. They are joined in the competition by league winners Étoile du Sahel.
ALGERIA
CR Belouizdad were the runaway winners in the Algerian Ligue 1 this past season, and they will be joined in the Champions League by CS Constantine. It is never an easy trip to Algeria, but South African teams have had success there.
DR CONGO
The once almost invincible aura around Lubumbashi TP Mazembe has faded and they are not the force of old, while the second side from DR Congo, AS Vita Club, are a tricky, but very beatable opponent to face.
OTHER NATIONS
Angolan champions Petro Atlético have given South African clubs a tough time in the past, knocking Mamelodi Sundowns out in the quarterfinals in 2021/22, while Young Africans from Tanzania, last year’s CAF Confederation Cup finalists, also take their place.
Nigeria will be represented by Remo Stars and Enyimba, and Zambia by league champions Power Dynamos. Coton Sport (Cameroon) and ASEC Abidjan (Ivory Coast) are also regulars in the competition.
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