Masandawana Gear Up For Action-Filled Encounter With Amakhosi

Mamelodi Sundowns are preparing for a blockbuster clash on Saturday in front of a sold out stadium when they meet Kaizer Chiefs for their third match in the DStv Premiership. Masandawana’s home form has started off disappointing this season when they suffered a 1-0 defeat in their midweek encounter, Co-Coach Rulani Mokwena has affirmed that the meeting with AmaKhosi will be nail biting for football supporters.

“It’s going to be quite interesting, I think the fixture in itself has always presented that type of spectacle. I think you even see with the numbers inside the media room how much of the anticipation there is from the general public and football lovers, and that’s how it should be. In football nations the big football clubs drive the interests, they drive the passion and the play from a technical perspective.

“I know coach Arthur [Zwane] well, we come a long way from the days of Black Poison vs Galatasaray so we have huge respect for each other, but that’s as far as it goes because on match day at the end it’s 11 versus 11. And then it’s the quality of the pitch, the quality of the performances from the eleven players that ultimately gives you a good football match.

Bafana Ba Style ended the 2021-22 season with a home win against Amakhosi, and it has been over two seasons with the Tshwane Giants winning two of the four league games, while the Soweto based team have only won one game and drawn the other one in the 2021-22 season. Downs will aim to get back into their winning form at Loftus Stadium for Saturday afternoon’s match which has been named #SandawanaSupporterSaturday”.

“Generally at the beginning of the season you are still trying to accumulate match condition from collective perspective and also from an individual perspective, but when you have a short turnaround of time between matches it’s a good and it’s a bad. The good in the sense that particularly after a not so good performance you have an opportunity very soon to wash it out and get a good feeling.” Declared Coach Rulani.

“But the bad is that you don’t have a lot of time on the pitch to train schemes, tactics and reinforce certain tactical elements from the game and then that’s when you rely on video analysis to be able to check and analyze the performance which we already started by doing. That already was a major part of today’s training session, and then you focus on regenerating the players. Generally that’s why preseason is so important because that is the window that you get to instill the foundation from a tactical perspective and then you incorporate because you never train in isolation now in modern football because you’ve got no time.”

Mamelodi Sundowns lock horns with Kaizer Chiefs in the DStv Premiership on Saturday, 13 August at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. This match will be televised live on SuperSport TV, kick off is at 15H00 and gates open at 11H00.