Mamelodi Sundowns face a quick turnaround between the away victory in Durban against Royal AM in the Nedbank Cup semi-final and the next DStv premiership away game against Sekhukhune United.
The Brazilians travelled back to Johannesburg after a hard-fought battle at the Chatsworth Stadium which saw the team earn a spot in this years Nedbank Cup final, to begin their preparations for an away fixture against mid-table Sekhukhune United.
Bafana Ba Style begin the new week on a high after being crowned league champions and earning a cup final spot in a matter of days. Ahead of the game, Coach Manqoba Mngqithi spoke about the importance of maintaining a level head in the camp and understanding that there are still targets to achieve:
“It’s always a little bit difficult to ensure that the message gets across, but as a club we’ve always set our targets and the players know very well that we’ve got our own benchmarks. Last season we got 67 points, the biggest margin was 71 points which we can no longer reach, but we can still go beyond 67 and that is what we are aiming to achieve.”
“Our players know very well, but we have to work very hard to ensure that they respect this process because we set this process altogether, not just as coaches and everybody has a sense of ownership in this process.”
Masandawana took on Babina Noko in a league encounter in November in an encounter that ended 2-0 in favour of Downs. Mngqithi spoke on the preparations for the game and what he expects from the Ekhuruleni-based outfit:
“There is not much that can be done on matchday minus one, fortunately we are playing against a team that we have played before, they have a very strong decision from defence to attack with players like Madonsela and Mahlangu, those players can cause you problems. We understand very well what to expect in this match. They’ve got very good pace in attack, they makes them a team to be respected.”
“I think they’ve always been a very good team, but obviously when you bring in a new coach at this stage of the season, there will always be a psychological upliftment in terms of how the players want to perform to impress the new coach. Having looked at their game against Arrows I don’t think there is a lot they can change at this stage in the season.”
Mamelodi Sundowns do battle against Babina Noko at the Emirates Airline Park on Tuesday afternoon in a bid to extend their dominance at the top of the DStv Premiership table.
