Third placed Mamelodi Sundowns Diski Team will be travelling to Polokwane to do battle with the Polokwane City FC Reserves on Sunday morning.
The Brazilians head to Sunday’s clash on the back of a 1-0 victory to the Orlando Pirates Reserves, managing to close the gap on the top of the tally. They, however, will not be resting in their laurels, despite the positive results in the previous encounter, according to Coach Themba Badela.
“We collected very important three points at home. It’s always good to win home games and against a team of that calibre. The mood has been good at training. It’s been like that for the last three weeks. We are well aware that we still have a lot of work to do, we cannot relax. We have to fight for every point, which is important. The team has been training well so far and we still have some time to prepare the team and make sure that we are ready for the game on Sunday,” he said.
Rise and Shine are sitting on the 16th position on the table and come from a 3-0 loss. Heading to this encounter, Coach Themba’s charges are weary of wounded opponents and are aware that their counterparts will be up in arms to fight for a positive result.
“It’s a very difficult game to prepare for because we are playing against a very awkward opponent that has been hurt a lot, so of course they also want to bounce back and they will be looking at this fixture as a chance to get their confidence back. The last time we played them, we had just played against Kaizer Chiefs which was in a festival. Last weekend against Orlando Pirates was also a festival where there’s a big crowd and now we have to switch back to not having a crowd which is not easy,” the Diski Head Coach said.
“It’s very important for our team to wear a lot of humility leading to the game. We have to respect our opponen. It will be a very difficult match against a difficult opponent as they are improving. They beat Amazulu not so long ago and they also had a draw recently. We have to be very careful and make sure that we are at our best to pick up the three points,” he continued.
The Sterkspruit-born Coach has pointed out that the unity amongst the teammates during both training and match days has pushed the team into the right direction and heading into the encounter in Polokwane, they will be banking on it to come out victorious.
“Of course, that’s what we told the players. We want to see them play as a team and fight together. You could see after getting the red card last weekend that the team was still fighting and still in the game together. That’s what we are looking for. We have to be together and we are stronger when we are together,” he concluded.
The Mamelodi Sundowns Diski Team will face the Polokwane City FC Reserves on Sunday Morning at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Kick-off is scheduled for 10H00.
