As Masandawana’s MTN8 quarterfinal match against Polokwane City draws nearer, Coach Manqoba spoke to the media on the readiness of his side, as they make their finishing touches in their preparations. With the hosts been dubbed as the favourites for this encounter, the coach has ensured that there will be no special treatment for this match and went on to predict that it will be a tough encounter.
“It’s always difficult to prepare for any match, and I always say the most difficult matches in football are the ones where everybody expects you to win because you cannot afford to faulter. Those kinds of games need extensive motivation because sometimes if the players don’t understand the value of winning these matches solely for the purpose of going through to the next round, then I don’t think they deserve to be in an environment like this,” he explained.
“Be as it may, we understand the complexities of playing a game like this one. We played a draw against them last year and they also did not lose a match in the last five matches of the season because of their style of play (sometimes man-to-man, sometimes always an extra player and sometimes a line of five or six at the back when they are trying to make sure they don’t concede). So, we must come up with a plan to make sure that we can break the game down as quickly as possible,” he continued.
All thanks to the pre-season friendlies, the Brazilians’ performances have allowed them to work on fine-tuning their performances ahead of their season opener. The team understands what is at stake and what is expected of them, as coach Manqoba explained: “There are many aspects of the game that we have tried to improve on. We also looked at our previous match and the areas we need to improve. The team has been doing very well, especially in the last four matches, where they were able to score 13 goals against very strong teams and only conceding to goals (via penalties), which is a very good sign.”
“I think the good thing is when we drew against them [Polokwane City] in a match where everyone expected us to win, intrinsically, players know their fault there because we could have collected more points in that match. Sometimes when we play against these so call ‘small clubs’, there is a tendency of taking these games for granted, but personally, if there is anything that I’m always weary of, is the games where everybody thinks it’s going to be easy to play. Based on that, we have worked very hard on ensuring that we all understand the main objective and what’s at stake, heading to this match,” the coach continued.
The MTN8 quarterfinal fixture between Mamelodi Sundowns and Polokwane City will take place on Sunday afternoon at the Lucas Moripe Stadium. Kick-off has been scheduled for 15H00.
Good game and few things to be rectified,defence where we need a speedy players Rivaldo is good but he doesn’t have speed and in middle field and I think now I sound like a broken record but fellow Dawanas we really need Feisal Salum to compliment Mokoena upfront I don’t have problem because the work permits of Sales,Savreeda and fit Nasir will solve all of that in our next game and it’s good what happened today so that they can solve the above problems before our game against Stellis
Great first half indeed but our players must Know that chances you create must be converted because if you don’t take your chances you will end up on the the losing side. But we must be patient with uShasha his confidence is low impacted by last season treatment. But once he gained his confidence mark my word he will destroy our opponents. To those who said sundowns will not even reach semi finals of the champions league. Let’s us wait and see. Thanks uMnyango ngokuvala. Well done guys