Looking at Bibey Mutombo on the soccer sidelines — or anywhere else, for that matter — and the resemblance between the Orlando Pirates coach and the sphinx of ancient Egypt is almost uncanny.
And even amid the despair and downright indignation among many in the Buccaneers camp over some insipid performances this season — which resulted in Mutombo being escorted out of Bidvest Stadium after the 1-0 defeat against Wits University on Saturday by police officers while a group of supporters bayed for his blood — the coach remained as inscrutable as you-know-who.
So it was not surprising that the Democratic Republic of Congo-born Mutombo hardly raised an eyebrow at the media briefing on Monday that was designed to publicise Pirates’ SAA Supa8 semifinal on Thursday against SuperSport United at King’s Park Stadium in Durban — as well as that between Mamelodi Sundowns and Jomo Cosmos in Polokwane on Wednesday.
”We are working hard and making good progress,” insisted Mutombo. ”With a little more time, the results of the planning will all fall into place and the results we all want will follow in due course.”
Mutombo conceded an erratic element in Pirates’ play, which has resulted in the Soweto club slithering towards joint bottom position in the Premier Soccer League log, was of some concern.
”We have one good performance,” he explained, ”and then we have one bad performance — and that is not good.”
But, if that is the bad news, the good news is that the Buccaneers are now due for ”a good performance” by Mutombo’s logic when they take on SuperSport in the Supa8 semifinal, with qualification for the final surely cooling down those who are hot under the collar — at least for a while.
Mutombo has also received a vote of confidence for the moment from club chairperson Irvin Khoza, with the ”Iron Duke”, who is almost as inscrutable as Mutombo, declaring the club will not be dictated to by a minority group of hot-headed supporters.
Sundowns, meanwhile, are showing none of Khoza’s tolerance while launching a blistering attack on the PSL for failing to ease their burden of competing in both local competitions and those of the CAF simultaneously — with the matter coming to a head this week as they travel from Polokwane to Douala in Cameroon for a Confederation Cup game on Saturday that will complete three arduous games and thousands of kilometres of travel all within six days.
PSL general manager Andrew Dipela refuted Sundowns’ claim by disclosing: ”We asked Sundowns for suggestions on how to ease their fixture problem some time ago, but they did not as much as bother to reply.” — Sapa