By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane has talked about his FIFA Club World Cup campaign with his former side Mamelodi Sundowns in 2016.
Mosimane had guided Sundowns to the FIFA Club World Cup after winning the CAF Champions League.
Sundowns had earned a 3-1 win on aggregate over Cairo giants Zamalek in the final of the competition.
The Brazillians however, failed to win any of their games in the Club World Cup, suffering defeats against Kashima Antlers and Jeonbuk Hyundai.
And former Sundowns coach Mosimane has recalled their disappointing Club World Cup campaign and believes the South African giants couldn’t cope with the circumstances back then.
“It was a tough tournament,” Mosimane told FIFA.com.
“The first obstacle we had to overcome was the six-hour time difference between the two countries.
“Then there was the cold winter weather in Osaka. To be honest, our opponents handled it better than we did. We lost 4-1 to Jeonbuk of Korea Republic and 3-0 to Kashima Antlers of Japan.
“We just had to deal with it and we were sorry we couldn’t give a better account of ourselves and that we came away goalless against Kashima Antlers.
“It was our first Club World Cup experience and I think stage fright got the better of us,” he added.
Mosimane will be at the Club World Cup once again this year, but this time in charge of Cairo giants Al Ahly, who won the treble last season.
Al Ahly will kick-off the tournament against Al Duhail and could face Bayern Munich if they manage to overcome the Qatari giants.
“If we beat Al Duhail, the tournament hosts, we’ll face Bayern Munich, which won’t be easy,” Mosimane continued.
“That said, we won’t have anything to lose if we get that far. We need to be at our best and fly the flag for the continent, the country and all the fans, so that they can be proud of us.
“If we give it our all on the pitch and we lose, we can go away satisfied because the level is so high.
“We’re a good side and we believe we can do big things. We’ve got the Qatari team in our first match and then we’ll see what happens.
“We hope we get the chance to face Bayern. We’d be delighted to play them and it would be an honour for us. There wouldn’t be any pressure on us either, because they’re the team who beat Barcelona.”