Out with the old, in with the new

Mamelodi Sundowns and Pyramids advance to the Champions League final after wins in Egypt over Al Ahly and Orlando Pirates.

There is a saying found in central Africa, "The dance of an old man doesn't last long". The old move on and leave the world to the young and in the CAF Champions League semi finals it was the young that out danced the old.

Late goals from Africa’s younger and richer clubs were the difference as Mamelodi Sundowns and Pyramids knocked out two of the continents oldest and biggest clubs in Al Ahly and Orlando Pirates, potentially ushering in a new era of African football.

Of the giants of Africa, there is no one older than Al Ahly, and over the two legs, the Red Devils showed their age. This is not the same team that romped to the final of the competition in each of the last five seasons, winning the competition four times.

While the margins were fine, what was clear from the two legs was that Al Ahly were not here to play football. A week earlier, in Pretoria, Marcell Koller surprised us all by drafting in defensive players Ahmed Hashem and Mostafa El Aash, going to a back five and effectively shutting up shop.

To Koller’s credit, it worked. Al Ahly shut down the game, denied Sundowns any space in the final third and came away from Pretoria with a very healthy 0-0.

The stage was perfectly set. Al Ahly would take Sundowns back to Cairo, the ostensible home of African club football. The Egyptian authorities granted the African champions’ request for a full stadium, something that has happened only a handful of times in the last decade. It was time for Al Ahly to be unleashed.

Instead, Koller opted for the same defensive formation, ceding the ball the visitors and defending deep. Once again, for 89 minutes, it paid off. Al Ahly played on the counter attack and scored a brilliant goal on the break. Emam Ashour (one of Al Ahly’s three attacking players on the pitch) found Taher Mohamed, who smashed home from just inside the Sundowns box.

Koller and Al Ahly shut up shop, gave up on attacking and tried to see out the game. They registered three shots in the second half, none on target while restricting Sundowns to long range efforts.

But very few teams can defend that deep for that long and it pays off. After surviving one penalty scare, which referee Dahane Beida went to the monitor and surprisingly didn’t overturn his original decision (VAR in Europe take notes), the brave Al Ahly defence was finally broken in the 90^th minute.

After 90 minutes of toil, Sundowns finally found their moment of magic. Divine Lunga beat his man before whipping in a cross that Themba ‘Mshishi’ Zwane flicked on with a delightful touch before Iqraam Rayner’s touch deflected in off the unfortunate Yasser Ibrahim. Thanks to CAF’s increasingly outdated use of away goals, the 1-1 draw on the night was enough to take the Masandawana through to the final.

And that ultimately is the problem with Koller’s approach this season. When it works, it works. But when it doesn’t work, there is no substance behind the results. For the majority of his Al Ahly career, that hasn’t been an issue for the Swiss coach. He brought a more attacking approach to the team after Pitso Mosimane moved on and racked up 11 titles in two and a half years.

But this season he has noticeably become more defensive, and it has not paid off.

The team is four points off Pyramids in the league and with the same gap between themselves and cross town rivals Zamelek, are at risk of placing outside the top two for the first time in 30 years. They lost the CAF Super Cup to Zamalek and also were knocked out of the Intercontinental Cup to Pachuca in the semi finals. They were knocked out of the Egyptian League Cup and didn’t even participate in the FA Cup after being banned for a season following their refusal to play in the competition last season due to a congested fixture list.

And so it is no surprise that Koller has paid the ultimate price, being sacked a day after the result. That is the price of failure in Cairo. Failure is anything less than perfection and Koller this season has not been perfect.

There is also something poignant about Al Ahly losing to Sundowns. For all of Al Ahly’s dominance on the continent, the one weak spot is to the South African clubs. Ever since the 2019 AFCON where Bafana Bafana pulled off the shock of the tournament and beat the Pharoahs on home soil, Mzansi have had the number of their North African rivals. Whether at the international level, youth level or at the club level, South Africa are Egypt’s bogey man, or perhaps more accurately, their Tokoloshe.

This was Al Ahly’s eighth game in a row against South African opposition without a win. It is a truly ridiculous stat, given that in that time they have won the Champions League in every year bar one. But it speaks to the defensive football that Al Ahly plays and how it falls down against the football from the South.

Mamelodi Sundowns are the club of “shoe, shine and piano”, Africa’s answer to tiki taka. It is a brand of football that prides itself on expression and beauty, not simply the winning-at-all-costs mindset held by their rivals in North Africa. And that difference was perfectly summed up in the Sundowns goal. The only player on the pitch that remembers the last time Sundowns were in the final when they won it in 2016, Themba Zwane, produced the moment of magic that only he can, to win the tie.

While Koller should take his share of the criticism, plenty of credit should go to Miguel Cardoso. Many Sundowns fans have been very critical of the Portuguese coach for taking the fun out of Sundowns. They are objectively a worse attacking team since he took over and probably will never reach the heights of beautiful football that they reached under Rhulani Mokoena. But Cardoso has come in and added a sprinkle of that North African steel to this side and it has worked a treat.

It's hard to imagine Rhulani Mokoena’s side conceding just one goal in four knockout games but under Cardoso, the surprise is that they even conceded one goal. His more pragmatic approach will be put to the test in the final as they play the best attacking side in Africa but Cardoso has done a stellar job. In the quarter finals he conquered his demons by beating his old club Espérance, in the semis he conquered Mokoena’s demons by getting them over the line and into the final, but he still has to conquer the demons of the club itself and bring back their first continental title in nearly a decade.

If Al Ahly are Africa’s most storied club, Pyramids are the continent’s least.

Only founded in 2018 when Saudi billionaire and the face of modern boxing Turki Al-Sheikh bought Al Assiouty Sport and moved the club 100 kilometres north from Beni Suef to Cairo and despised by every Egyptian football fan outside the 30 June Stadium, they have finally silenced their haters and come of age.

They have also been the only team in the competition to truly let loose and attack with abandon. In the first leg against Orlando Pirates, the Egyptians went for it and nearly came away with the win after having two goals narrowly ruled out for offside, but at home where they are now 23 games unbeaten, they twice came from behind to win.

Right from the off, both teams were happy to risk it with attacking football, creating plenty of chances before the visitors took the lead in the 41^st minute. Relebohile Mofokeng smashed home a volley after Pyramids failed to clear a Pirates freekick. But just minutes later Pyramids took the lead when Fiston Mayele bundled home Mostafa Fathi’s cross.

With Pirates going through on away goals, Pyramids had to open up and the Buccaneers took full advantage. Mohau Nkota scored a brilliant goal from the edge of the box following a counter attack. But if Sundowns and Al Ahly employed every ounce of experience in their semi final, both Pyramids and Pirates showed their naivety in buckets.

Just minutes after retaking the lead, Pirates were pegged back again. Mohamed Chibi’s cross from deep was powered home with a bullet header from former Stoke City and Huddersfield Town forward Ramadhan Sobhi.

Pyramids piled on the pressure and in the 84^th minute that pressure told when Mayele once again tapped in from just a few yards out following Sipho Chaine’s save. The Egyptians held out and earned themselves a spot in the final against Sundowns in a month’s time in their debut season.

To be fair, it is nothing less than Pyramids deserve. Under Croatian manager Krunoslav Jurčić they have been the most exciting team in Africa and arguably the continent’s best side.

Pyramids have lost just four games all season and have not lost at all at home in any competition. They are in the Egypt Cup final for the second season running, top of the Premier League and now are in the Champions League. They have scored 21 goals in the Champions League, four more than Al Ahly with the second most and three times the amount that their final opponents Sundowns have.

What is even more impressive is that for both semi finals and their second leg in the quarter finals, they were missing arguably the best player on the continent this season, Ibrahim Adel. But without his goals and creativity they still were a constant threat, thanks in large part to Fiston Mayele.

The Congolese forward had already cemented his status as one of the continent’s best forwards when he powered Young Africans of Tanzania to the Confederation Cup final a couple years ago. But this season he has shown himself to be arguably the best striker in Africa and the final piece of the puzzle for a team that has spent so much money with very few rewards.

Pyramids are still a flawed team, it’s what makes them so fun. They have had a relatively easy run to the final. They had a soft group and then played two exciting teams in the knockouts. But neither Pirates or ASFAR Rabat have the pedigree or experience in recent years that Pyramids similarly lack.

The only team they have played with that pedigree was Espérance in the group stage who did get the better of Pyramids, drawing in Egypt before comfortably beating them 2-0 in Radès. In a Sundowns team coached by Miguel Cardoso, they will be playing a team that has plenty of experience and defensive grit. As depressing as it is that Sundowns have reached the final while only scoring seven goals in ten games, they have only conceded five and just one in the knockouts.

For Orlando Pirates, despite the disappointment, they will reflect on a brilliant first season back in the Champions League for almost five years. José Riveiro may be leaving at the end of the season, but he will leave behind him an excellently balanced team capped off by two of the most exciting wingers in Africa.

Mohau Nkota and Relebohile Mofokeng are just 20 but already are feared across Africa. With players like Deon Hotto, Patrick Maswanganyi and Evidence Magkopa backing them up, the Buccaneers have one of the best attacks around. They are perhaps just too far behind Sundowns to catch them in the league but a Nedbank Final against bitter rivals Kazier Chiefs could cap off a season that has seen them take their place back at the top of African football.

Pirates will want to make sure they stay there. With upstarts like Sundowns and Pyramids making themselves comfortable at the top of the food chain, in both Egypt and South Africa the old guard needs to make sure that their dance continues.