Fatigue, poor defending cost us — Medeama coach
Medeama coach Tom Strand rued his side’s defensive display in the final stage of their African Confederation Cup clash against Mamelodi Sundowns last Saturday that left the Ghanaian side with a mountain to climb in the second leg.
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Medeama led 1-0 until the 81st minute, but three goals in six minutes from Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila turned the tie on its head.
“It was very painful to see this happening in the last minutes but still I think we played a very good game today,” the Swede told SuperSport after the match.
“Unfortunately we got a little bit tired and got out of our positions and let Mamelodi get too much space to play in and they came back into the game.
“We shouldn’t have let them come back into the game but it happened today, and it’s football, it happens.”
Strand said fatigue and playing at altitude was a contributor to their fall.
“It felt like we got really tired in the last 10 minutes and we started to play in a different way, so we’ll work on that.”
Strand questioned one of Sundowns’ goals. The Brazilians already had two other goals ruled out for offside.
“It feels like an offside pass to the one who made the assist [Thabo Nthethe] inside the box so that one [Malajila goal] looks very suspicious for me.”
The home side staged a late fightback for their 3-1 victory in the playoff first-leg clash at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville.
Eric Kwakwa opened the scoring in the first minute for visitors and Tom Strand's team the looked on course for a famous win, but three goals in six minutes handed the ‘Brazilians’ the advantage heading into the return fixture.
Medeama only arrived in the South African capital last Friday morning, but hardly showed signs of fatigue in the early exchanges.