All eyes on Ramovic and Mokwena ahead of league match

All eyes will no doubt be on TS Galaxy coach Sead Ramovic and his Mamelodi Sundowns counterpart Rulani Mokwena when the two teams clash in a DStv Premiership match at Mbombela Stadium on Wednesday.

The two coaches have traded verbal blows over the last couple of weeks. Their disdain for each other started in the aftermath of Galaxy’s win over the Brazilians in the Carling Black Label Knockout  last year.

Mokwena, who played without his Bafana Bafana regulars in the cup competition, drew the wrath of Ramovic when he complained about not having a full strength team. Ramovic slammed the Sundowns head coach for disrespecting his players.

Mokwena said he felt Ramovic’s comments should have been kept private, which drew a fiery press conference from the Serbian ahead of Galaxy’s Nedbank Cup last 32 game against Golden Arrows.

Ramovic revealed an expletive-laden phone call he had received from Mokwena in December.

Although the Brazilians manager said he will shake hands with his nemesis if he wants to, expect fireworks at Mbombela Stadium.

After going at length to fire back at Ramovic’s jibe about Masandawana’s riches, the 37-year-old refused to respond in kind, with The Rockets’ financial troubles from last season well documented.

‘There are a lot of things I can tell you’

“Sometimes as coaches, we have to be very careful because why should I sit here and talk about Galaxy? It’s not even Sead’s club, it is Tim Sukazi’s club,” Mokwena said recently.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Tim so I can’t sit here and talk about other things. There are a lot of things I can tell you, just go back to the recording that you have where during a meeting (of unpaid Galaxy players) you heard things that were said there.

“It’s very easy to go into that space but I can’t go there because I have to respect South Africans and people who work very hard like Tim to run a football club.”

The Tshwane giants will once again put their now 16-game unbeaten record on the line. Meanwhile, Galaxy come into the game on the back of a surprise 2-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Cape Town Spurs.

Ramovic and his charges dumped Sundowns out of the Carling Knockout via penalties. However, the last time the two rivals met in the league, Sundowns recorded a hard-fought 2-1 victory.