Gallants Striker – No One Cares About Us In Confed Cup

Marumo Gallants forward Sibusiso Sibeko says no one in South Africa “cares” about their splendid CAF Confederation Cup campaign, but if it was other so-called big teams everyone would have been shouting their names from the rooftops.

Sibeko said they are all on their own in the African jungle, but it also has an advantage because it puts less pressure on them.

Gallants, despite their revered financial struggles, are defying the odds in Africa, as they are in the quarter-finals of the second tier competition.

They drew 1-1 with money-rich Pyramids of Egypt on Sunday, when they looked like picking up a historic win until one moment of madness from former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Sibusiso Kumalo, who saw the ball struck his hand inside the box in injury-time.

Former Stoke City striker Ramadan Sobhi stepped up and sent Washington Arubi the wrong way from the penalty spot in added time to score the equalizer, after Yanga Chivaviro had taken a shock lead for the Limpopo side.

“Of course no one cares,” said Sibeko when asked, if they are getting the credit they deserve and if it was Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates things would have been different.

“But that helps us because it is not putting too much pressure. We know we just got ourselves [here] and everyone is playing for their future staff.

“We have a team that still wants to achieve and that is another thing that is helping us.

“In fact that no one is caring about us, it is giving us more motivation to drive us and try and prove everyone wrong because when we qualified to the group stages, everyone thought ‘they will be eliminated quickly’.

“But when we got through to the quarter-finals as it is now, everyone said ‘they have Pyramids, they are out’. That is the reason why we are pushing hard to say ‘oh, okay, they think we can’t do it, we will show them that we can do it’.”

Impressively too, the majority of Gallants players were rejected by top clubs, such as Sibeko himself by Golden Arrows, Tshepo Gumede, Mahlatse Makhudubela and Mpho Mvelase at Orlando Pirates, Lucky Mohomi by Mamelodi Sundowns, Joseph Molangoane at Kaizer Chiefs and Arubi at SuperSport United. 

These players have been mainstay in the side, including Yanga Chivaviro up top, scoring six goals through the stages of the competition.    

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“If you look at the players that we have, most of them have played for big teams in the PSL,” added Sibeko.

“So they can’t be bad players overnight. We have quality players here, that is one thing for sure.

“What is helping us is the camaraderie of the team. We think we can do it because there is no team we are playing against that we go and defend.”

Gallants will host Pyramids in the second leg at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Sunday night and have announced that all fans will get free entrance to the fixture.