Mamelodi Sundowns will have to ‘create as many scoring chances as possible and get the ball in the net,’ insisted Coach Manqoba Mngqithi in the Carling Knockout Cup press conference, as they aim to complete a hugely positive Carling Knockout Cup run by defeating Magesi FC in the final.
The Brazilians stride to Bloemfontein again on Saturday evening, looking to lift the silverware for the fifth time, having surged strongly through the competition. After defeating Lamontville Golden Arrows in the first round, Bafana Ba Style went on to see off Kaizer Chiefs in the quarterfinal. They cruised through to the final after defeating Marumo Gallants in Bloemfontein.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday at Chloorkop, coach Manqoba looked ahead to the crunch final, stating that they have prepared well for this mouthwatering encounter.
“In the absence of the best, I would say the preparations are going very well. We don’t have the whole squad in our matchday -3 training session because of their involvement in international activities. With our group, the preparations have gone well. The players look eager and interested to participate in this important match, and I think everything is going according to plan,” he said.
Presenting the last obstacle is a Magesi FC side Coach Manqoba’s charges have not met this season but are weary of, looking at their current streak in all competitions.
The Masandawana coach outlined how his men will need to dig deep to get the desired results and achieve their objective. He continued stating that they are weary of the danger their opponent poses and have posed to other teams to get to the final.
“Because I have respect for every opponent and I’m always scared of the opponents that are not favoured, I try to dig as deep as I can, look at every individual and know their team probably more than I know my team sometimes. As it is now, I can tell you the starting XI and the potential substitutes they can play in this match. I know the players that will give us a hard time, and we know what to expect. We just have to be focused and keep our levels of motivation at the right level because games like these are very difficult,” the coach stated.
“For me, goals are the determining factor of the result, and thus, we should be targeting to make sure that we play to score as many goals as possible. If we say we are better than the opponent, it should be because we can score more goals than them. I don’t think possession will be enough without creating a lot of scoring opportunities,” he continued.
The KwaZulu-Natal-born tactician concluded by highlighting the importance of his men winning the cup final and what it would mean for them, especially as they are about to embark on their CAF Champions League campaign.
“I think this win for me would probably be the same as any other win we have had in every match that we have played because I never want to downplay or hype any match because in football. I’ve learnt that you must just respect every match as it is, regardless of the level of the competition or match. It’s very important to develop habits of trying to win every match that you play because it helps you not to deal with issues, whether they are extrinsic or intrinsic in terms of motivation. That helps because that habit would help us go into a Champions League match with a little bit more confidence and desire. So, it will be important for us to win this game,” he concluded.
Mamelodi Sundowns will meet Magesi FC in a crunch final on Saturday evening at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein. Kick-off has been scheduled for 18H00, live on SuperSport TV.
Yaz ngi speechless…ziyeyisa lezinja…Bafwe2..game was at our mercy instead of being professional we doing what the coach claimed was do by Rhulani passing the ball side ways…it’s 1 nill…hayyi Aubbas started to play amansamaya…and yaz ngyabuka ba relaxing….coach please we watched the game…this thing of acting angry masudliwe…ungalinge..udlala ngathi….the time we were leading not winning 1 up…you and your staff were sitting down..you didn’t see anything wrong..when players were too relax…not mention wasteful Riberio/ Reinas…unomhobholo Riberio…ayende was all over the pitch…only Modau and Shasha…Tebza.was to relax …you coul see the body language yokuthatha kancane Magesi.from my team….angisaphathi.sesishaye igoli…besekusele sitebhise izikhindi..we were arrogant…and mother luck was so annoyed and decided to teach us a lesson…that’s all…ningalokhu nikhala la..you didn’t respect us…kanye ne opponents that’s why…niyalunga….maybe khona abazothi..hard luck Masandawana this game..ayisivumanga..which is nonsense..niyeyisa nina..luckily asibonani..bengizoni xhawula kancane..nizosibukanisa.nosduma ngabanye..uzophela nini nje unyaka.elokshin…angaz today sohambaphi..niyadakwa…
Good morning MASANDAWANA. Hard luck for not winning the beer cup. Congratulations to Clinton Larsen and his team. I would like to say that the problem is with players. Some of them are not discipline like UMDAWU. CLUMSY CHALLENGE KNOWING VERY WELL HE WILL BE BOOKED. YESTERDAY UNNECESSARY YELLOW CARD. THERE IS NO UNITY among sundowns players. Some of them did not put the TEAM first rather put their interest first. Greedyness is what costs sundowns not only for yesterday’s game. What Can u blame the coach for?
In reality I don’t blame the coach,I put all the blame 2 Sundowns management 4 not protecting the technical team.If more than 3 players represent the national team,Sundowns should have asked 4 the postponement of the final for another day.If that doesn’t materialize Sundowns should have written 2 SAFA&ask the coach not 2 utilize their eight players 4 a game that was a dead rubber bt no the management chose 2 act tough and whose job is under scrutiny?The coach again,how do u explain that the same thing happened last year in the same cup competition when Sundowns honored a match only 2 b knocked out by TS Galaxy.U could tell by the look of things that Sundowns players were fatigued after conceding a goal. How do u explain that we lost 2 a club that ddnt have a shot on target bt had 2 chances & utilized them.Again management must stop this nonsense of buying players from South America bcoz they’re giving us nothing except Ribeiro, Ighordaro is an aggressive player and is supposed to b at Sundowns scoring goals bt Sundowns is obsessed by this fancy football that is taking us nowhere.
Coach Manqoba because you are humble why don’t you teach your players to be humbled. National team players are full of nonsense they don’t respect us as supporters. They think they are important than Our beloved Sundowns Team. They are full of themselves as stars.
Please coach remind your players to be decisive. We loved Sundowns a lot. So we can not tolerate indecisiveness and greedyness of some players. Mvala bakwethu akulona defender.
Masandawana im very disappointed
Hi Masandwana, While am so disappointed the past few days, i think we should be reminded that were postive takeawaus from the match against Magesi
1. Strong possession-based play
2. Commendable team effort and determination
3. Foundation for future improvement
But there are areas of concerns which i think should be addressed which speaks to game management, and you would think at this level, where we playing champions league, should be second nature to the team but it wasn’t to be.
There is a loss of concentration at crucial moments and tactical naivety in assuming dominance would automatically lead to success. Our wing-backs positioning and awareness needs improvement. There was a preventable cross that led to Magesi scoring and the slow tracking backing by our left wing back left me asking so many questions on tactical awareness.
All is not lost, let us continue to work on defensive vulnerabilities. There is also concern to our attacks, where i thought a simple pass would have been better than trying to shoot….i think we are concerned to even criticize the likes of Ribeiro at times, cos he is considered our star player, but i think he needs to be asked to also play those passes where it is simple. There was one incident where he could have made that pass instead of trying to shoot.
Combination of many factors made use to lose the game,lack of respect to the opponents,you could see by the body language that the players act like the won the before it even started and worse,after we scored the goal we starting to celebrate the cup forgetting that we are only leading not winners.Players like Modiba were too casual from the word go and lost the ball cheaply many times.In the final third we were not playing as a unit everyone was just shooting when others were in good position to score.Our technical team also lacked proper game plan,their game plan is one suits all which does not work in football.We knew we were going to play a stubborn and organised team defensively yet we didn’t have plan for that.Shalulile is a hard working player but at the day his positives are less than negatives,he is good in pressing defense but terrible in creating chances for others,we needed someone like Morena who is more creative and good in identifying gabs,you can’t penetrate opponents with Peter but defensively i rate him highly,he defended set pieces better than Mvala and Kekana combined.Mvala was forever caught wanting we defending set pieces in the box,most players focus on the player on making crossing the ball rather than the one who is going to receive the ball which is exactly how we conceded those two goals,you can give more attention to a player putting the ball across the goals rather the the one who is going to receive it in the box period.My conclusion, no matter how good or bad the plan of the coach is,players have a responsibility to do positive thing on the pitch for the benefit of the team.You broke the hearts of the Downs faithfuls.I saw lots of supporters crying.This Sundowns team lacks big match temperament,even in the champions league when we lost an away first leg we don’t win a home 2nd leg and i doubt if we can pass the group stages and we must just forget about winning champions league if we still fail to beat minors in a cup final.Three cup finals zero cup,Magesi fc first ever cup final one cup. Verdict this group of players are a disgrace to the brand Mamelodi Sundowns,some were still celebrating Bafana’s AFCON qualification forgetting their primary job.