The audacity of All Stars XI stunning Stellenbosch in the Black Label Cup has been credited to the meticulousness of Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro.
Stellenbosch went into the game as heavy favourites, considering that the All Stars Team had five players from the DStv Diski Challenge in the line-up and although they had experienced players from other teams, goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune, Ashley Du Preez and Njabulo Ngcobo from Kaizer Chiefs, Victor Letsoalo and Ramahlwe Mphahlele from AmaZulu and Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo from Orlando Pirates in the starting XI, the team only had a few days to prepare.
In contrast, Stellies had been together for long and were on a good run of 11 games unbeaten in all competitions, including winning the Carling Knockout, but lost 2-1 to a hastily-arranged All Stars.
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Mphahlele says he went into the camp with the mentality that it's going to be just a game for fun but that changed after Riveiro, voted as the head coach of the All Stars Team, put more professionalism behind the preparations.
"We did take it seriously, I think if you walk into a team and you find the vibe that these guys are here to compete, because the coach (Jose Riveiro) never gave us a vibe of saying, 'No this is not a serious game'," Mphahlele said on SABC's Soccer Zone.
"He came very prepared, I was like 'Why is this man so serious?', because you're thinking All Stars, you don't have much time to prepare but the man is so prepared, he's got every detail about Stellenbosch.
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"He's updating on the group, the training sessions are well planned and very decisive, 'We're doing this today and this is the reason we're doing this'," he revealed.
"And then the mentality changes to, 'Okay, maybe this is not what I thought it was'. It did help, once the vibe of saying 'We wanna compete' is there then everybody changes," he added.
Ironically, All Stars faced Stellenbosch just a week after Pirates lost 3-2 to the same side in the DStv Premiership.