The Mamelodi Sundowns Diski Team will be looking to bag all points on offer when they travel to Kwa-Zulu Natal to face the Lamontville Golden Arrows Reserves on Saturday, in another DStv Diski Challenge Festival.
Masandawana will head to this reverse fixture with confidence, following their victory in the previous weekend, which has assisted them in closing the gap in the points tally. The victory was their first this year and they will be looking to continue with the good form in their remaining matches.
“The energy in training has been positive. Of course, the win gave us a little bit of confidence to prepare for this week’s encounter. We had a bit of difficulties because of the seven players who joined the senior team at camp that we were without the whole week. We however believe that the skills they learnt there will help the team,” Coach Themba said when asked about the team’s preparations.
The last time the two sides met, was in the first half of the season and the spoils were shared. Obviously, the Brazilians will want to turn things around and grab maximum points to boost their run for the title. The Diski coach suggests that they will not have it easy in this encounter but remains confident of the team’s abilities and preparation.
“Firstly, we have to try to score and it won’t be easy because Golden Arrows are a very good team. They defend very well. We met on our second game of the season and we were still trying to find our feet as a team then. We did create chances but we were not clinical with the goals. What’s important now is to have numbers inside the box, attack the box and use the chances that we will get on Saturday,” the tactician said.
“If you are too open against them, they can easily punish you. So, heading to this game, we have to make sure that we defend well and if we do that, it will give us the opportunity to attack well,” he continued.
The DStv Diski Challenge has now entered the second half of the season. The league has seen several title chasers and among those, are the Brazilians, who are languishing third on the table. According to coach Themba, his charges will have to win as many games as possible in the second half, if they want to see themselves on top of the table. Furthermore, he stated that his side continues to focus on improving and bringing their good form back.
“It’s very simple, we have to try to win as many games as we can. We have to win more games than we did in the first half of the season. It’s going to come down to the wire with the teams that are chasing the title. The team that wins the most games, especially in February and March will take it,” he stated.
“We are currently focusing on improving. We want to be better than we were against Cape Town City and at the moment, that’s the most important thing. We are trying to improve the performances and being consistent in bringing home back-to-back wins,” he concluded.
The reverse fixture between the Mamelodi Sundowns Diski Team and the Lamontville Golden Arrows Reserves will take place on Saturday afternoon at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont. Kick off is scheduled for 15H00 live on SuperSport TV