The CAF Confederations Cup journey for Black Leopards ended after a long winning streak to lend them in the last 16 of the CAF. They were knocked out by Almerreikh with the final aggregate score being 3-2 after two legs.

But these are no sad news as it is an achievement the team will be proud of for years to come, if not it is one of the highlights the team has achieved in its all-time existence. Black Leopardsfc.com brings you a one on one interview with Bafana Bafana’s newly appointed national team coach Gordon Igersund.

Blackleopadsfc.com: Welcome Gordon and thank you for your time.
Gordon Igersund: Thank you and it’s a pleasure to be here.

BLFC: Briefly tell us what you think about Leopards participation in the CAF competition.
Gordon: Well firstly let me just congratulate Black Leopards for an amazing run in the CAF Cup. They have made South Africa proud and we would have liked to see them go further but unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but well done to them for making it this far as the only team in South Africa to have done that this term of the CAF.

BLFC: What can other teams learn from this?
Gordon: They can learn a lot. To mention a few things, Leopards firstly were fighting a hard fight not to get relegated at the end of the previous season but they did not use that as an excuse to perform poorly in the CAF. They showed character to win against many unfavourable conditions and situations, which are some of the values other teams can grasp from this.

BLFC: Your opinion on the game itself, where do you think the team went wrong?
Gordon: The team did very well; they did not set a foot wrong. They went out there with the intention of winning that game from my view but it was just unfortunate that things did not go their way.

BLFC: Would you say the team is on the correct direction as far as contending on other competitions as well as the PSL?
Gordon: Definitely I think with the team spirit they have they will go a long way. They can take this competition as an example of how good they are. I mean to get as far as challenging for the group stages is an achievement on its own, so yes they are heading on the right direction.

BLFC: With that much credit to the team do you think there is some talent that can get a shot in the National team?
Gordon: Well, the reason I came to the match was to firstly support Black Leopards, my job was not to come and choose players. There is a lot of talent in the team, in fact in the whole country and as far as I would say for the national team is that we should be looking at players and attend games like these to make sure we spread our wings to take advantage and we might find the players that can help us.