TS Galaxy head coach Sead Ramovic has hit out at Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena over what Ramovic described as 'disrespectful' comments after the two teams met in the Carling Knockout.
The Rockets are putting in the final preparations for their semi-final clash against AmaZulu in the Carling Knockout – a stage of the competition they reached after beating Sundowns in the quarterfinals.
After that match, Mokwena expressed his unhappiness with having to play without seven of the team's regulars who were on Bafana duty.
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However, speaking at the TS Galaxy media day ahead of the clash, Ramovic explained why he found Mokwena's comments 'disrespectful' while discussing The Rockets' goalscoring woes.
"We were very unlucky against Royal AM, I think that we had 15 opportunities in front of goal and we did not score," Ramovic said.
"Yes, it's in the end maybe some quality because you have to score but this is not only time that we have the problem. Also, many other teams have this kind of problem in front of the goal and they also missed a lot but if you look at SuperSport, our mistakes, and we conceded poor goals, so it was very unlucky.
"Not good of us. If you watch Richards Bay, very, very unlucky and of course also poor decisions from the referees. But all in all, we don't want to find any excuse like other coaches do.
"[For] example, when we won against Sundowns, what were the excuses from the opponent? What was the excuse from the coach (Rulani Mokwena), from the opponent?
"He didn't play with seven players, right? So how is this respectful to the players that played?
"National [team] players [like] Allende? What's the one you (Sundowns) bought for R60 million? Allende. Then you bought the guy from Stellenbosch (Mendieta), how much did they pay? R12 million," he said.
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"Then you have [Bongani] Zungu, then you have a lot of other national players and you come up with an excuse to disrespect my staff, my players, myself?
"I think a good very strong coach will not find an excuse, he will say, 'fantastic job from Galaxy, they did a fantastic game plan, they beat us, and we show respect'.
"What did he do? Try to find excuses because he did not have seven players. But he also, I think disrespected his own team, his own players, because if he says that he cannot win with the kind of players that they have.
"I think the team that played against us could win the league, top players. Unbelievable. So it means that we also did a fantastic job. I don't have an excuse that we sold several players.
"I play with players [that I have], we fight. Good ones, young ones, [from the] NFD, under-23 and we try to improve," he added.
TS Galaxy's semi-final clash against AmaZulu will be played at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday. Kick-off is at 15:00.
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