We have gained a lot of valuable experience – Mogorosi
BONGANI MALUNGA
Township Rollers’ elimination from the 2018 CAF Champions League group stage was confirmed this past weekend as Al Ahly beat Esperance to eventually join their North African giants in the quarterfinals. Al Ahly’s 1-0 win rendered Rollers’ away game against KCCA FC a ‘dead rubber’ with both sides only playing for pride.
Esperance had already qualified for the next round before the Al Ahly game, Rollers and KCCA had pinned their hopes on an Esperance victory to boost their chances of being in contention to reach the next round. Walid Alzaro’s solitary strike sent Al Ahly to the next round a day before the Rollers and KCCA clash.
Rollers lost 1-0 to KCCA this past weekend at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Uganda, the result saw the Ugandan side leapfrog Popa on the table. Nikola Kavazovic’s men are now the bottom team in Group A, they also have the joint worst defensive record in the group stages.
They have, so far, conceded nine goals, they share that record with Group D’s Mbabane Swallows and AS Togo Port of Group C. Another unsatisfactory record that Rollers have is that they are the joint lowest scorers in the group stages, they have scored only two goals in the competition, the same number of goals as Swaziland’s Swallows.
Rollers forward Joel Mogorosi told Gazette Sport that they have taken a lot of positives from their CAF Champions League campaign. “This was a great experience for the players and we have managed to learn a lot about the competition in a short period of time, we gained a lot of valuable lessons. At first we were conceding bad goals but as the competition went on we improved, our biggest undoing was conceding through set pieces in the past few games. We were able to learn what we need to cut out in the near future. But overall the boys really enjoyed the challenge, we will still hold our heads high. We will be ready for the next campaign, we always want to improve and to win as well,” said Mogorosi.