“I think that a good, very strong coach will not find an excuse when they lose a game but will say ‘fantastic job, they did a fantastic game plan, they beat us, and we show respect’.”
These were the words of outspoken TS Galaxy coach Sead Ramovic aimed at Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena.
Ramovic was remarking after Mokwena complained about missing seven of his key players when they were knocked out in the first round of the Carling Black Label Knockout cup competition by Galaxy.
Like a man that had bottled his feelings and needed to pour his heart out without any filter, Ramovic said Mokwena showed signs of weakness and disrespect towards his own players.
“All in all, we don’t want to find excuses like the other coaches do [when they lose],” said Ramovic ahead of their semi-final clash against AmaZulu on Sunday.
“For example, when we won against Sundowns, what were the excuses from the [opposition] coach?
“He didn’t play with seven players, so where is the respect for the players who played
“International players such as [Marcelo] Allende who they bought for R60-million, and then they bought the guy from Stellenbosch [Junior Mendieta] – how much did they pay, R12-million?
“Then you had [Bongani] Zungu and a lot of other national players, and you come up with an excuse to disrespect my staff, my players and myself.
“I think a very strong coach will not find an excuse. He will say, ‘fantastic job from Galaxy, they had a fantastic game plan and they beat us, and we show respect for what they did’.
“He tried to find excuses because he couldn’t play seven players. But he also disrespected his own team and own players.”
Ramovic went on to state that the Brazilians have a good back-up squad that can go as far as winning the league, and promised that they will likely beat them when they meet again.
“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 can promise you that we will beat them again. We won that game because we deserved to win.”
