Looking to duplicate the away trip in their opponent’s backyard when they won 2-0, thanks to Onele Rulwana and Ntando Nkosi’s goals, the Diski team will want to get a positive result again when they host the Royal AM Reserves on Saturday morning at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Coming from the back of a draw against the Kaizer Chiefs Reserves at the weekend, Coach Themba has stated that the mood at training this week was a bit unusual as they are aware of what’s at stake.
“The mood has been a little bit low because we have set such a high standard with this group and the last two games haven’t really been the best, but the players understand that we believe in them, their talent and their abilities. We have had a very good week of training and we are looking forward to Saturday’s game.”
The Brazilians have never lost a match this season at their home ground and heading to this return fixture, they will want to maintain the unbeaten run. Coach Themba has however highlighted that his side will need to display an excellent performance as their counterparts will look to also collect points.
“We enjoy playing at home because the pitch is good and it suits the way we want to play football. Of course, there is always pressure when you play against a team that is coming from defeat because emotionally they want to recover, but we are also in the same space. we know it’s going to be a very difficult game. When we played them away, they gave us a very tough game. We scored late to break the game and once we broke the game we made it 2-0,” he stated.
“So, the players are well aware of the challenge that we are facing. Royal AM has very good players and they are a very good team. You can see that they’ve been together for a while and they do understand what it takes to play against big teams. We have to be very sober in everything that we do on Saturday,” he continued.
Regardless of the results from last week, Bafana Ba Style, according to their coach, are confident that they will collect all points on offer. He further stated that they are now doing it for the Yellow Nation, who have been supportive throughout the season.
“We are very confident. We’ve always told the players that they must just focus on the game. The preparations have gone well and we’ve watched the opposition from the few games that we managed to get. We have prepared the players and they are looking good, so it’s now for us to take the game plan to the pitch. We go into this game with a lot of confidence,” coach Themba said.
“Playing at home just gives us that extra urge. We are getting to a point where we just always feel it becomes very difficult for us to drop points at home especially because we have our supporters at home. It’s always encouraging to see them there and singing for the players. We are looking forward to playing at home and we would like to put a good performance and thank the people who have been supporting us at home,” he concluded.
The match between the Mamelodi Sundowns Diski Team and the Royal AM Reserves will take place on Saturday morning at the Lucas Moripe Stadium. Kick off is set for 10H00.
