Former Mamelodi Sundowns mentor beats Miguel Cardoso and Steve Barker to become All-Stars coach to face Orlando Pirates in Carling Black Label Cup

Golden Arrows head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has been elected as the Carling Black Label Cup All-Stars head coach and will face Orlando Pirates in the final.

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso and Stellenbosch's Steve Barker had been nominated for elections, but Mngqithi prevailed.

The 54-year-old tactician garnered 20259 to emerge as the winner, according to Golden Arrows.

Abdeslam Ouaddou was also contesting for this position, but after Pirates won the Carling Knockout, he technically became ineligible, as he would not play against his side.

Pirates will face the Carling Black Label Cup All-Stars side on 13 December at Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Bucs' forward Oswin Appollis has already declared that they are going to win the competition.

"As Orlando Pirates, we approach the Carling All-Stars with the same mentality – we are going there to win," the Bafana Bafana expressed after beating Gallants in the Carling Knockout final.

Abafana Bes'thende have lost their last four games across all competitions. One of the defeats came in the semi-final when they lost to Marumo Gallants in a high-octane clash.

Although Arrows are not faring well in the Premier Soccer League, Mnqithi is happy with the progress of his players.

“[I’m] excited with the progress that the boys are making, and I can see the direction the team is taking, looking at the youngsters that I introduced,” the tactician said in a recent interview, as per Sowetan.

“I was impressed when I saw these players and how they are playing, and the future is good. I’m excited because I see a huge difference in the team in many ways.

“Starting from offensive play, I think there is tremendous improvement in that regard. When I compare this first round of 14 games in the league and three that we played in the [Carling Knockout] cup, looking at the whole season last year, where we scored 21 goals in 30 games," he added.

Mnqithi admitted that their struggle is primarily due to individual errors, and he believes these are solvable problems.

“This term, we've scored 26 goals in 17 matches, and that for me is a very big positive, but an area that we must work very hard on is our defensive play," the former Sundowns coach continued.

“We’ve conceded a lot of goals from individual errors that have cost the team the results in many instances. We can sort that out. I’m excited because I know the area where I need to work hard.

“You know football is the game of results that determines the fate of the club. It is easy to look at the last four games and say, ‘We didn’t do well’,” he stated.

“But if you look at those games, you will say we didn’t deserve to lose against TS Galaxy, AmaZulu, [or] even against Pirates. We did not deserve to lose against Marumo Gallants.

“We’ve learnt our lessons; let’s see if we will grow in the second round, but where I’m sitting, I see a lot of positives rather than negatives.”