The 2021/22 PSL gets underway this weekend with the top 8 finishers from last season’s DStv Premiership taking part in the MTN8 quarter-finals this weekend. Mamelodi Sundowns star midfielder, Rivaldo Coetzee, is confident about his team’s preparations going into tomorrow’s opener against Kaizer Chiefs.
Coetzee, who spent most of last season in the holding midfield role, had an outstanding season with The Brazilians leading to his nomination for the “2020/21 DStv Premiership Midfielder of the Season award.
The midfielder spoke about the preparations for the game tomorrow and said: “We are preparing the same way we do for every match. We’re going into the game to win it, because we had a full pre-season with the coaches, we know our structure, we know how to play, we know the philosophy of the team now. We are better prepared going into this year’s cup competition compared to last year.” said Rivaldo.
The Brazilians went on to clinch their fourth successive league title last season, however, while the Champions will be eager to progress to the next round of the cup as they have found the MTN8 a tough nut to crack. Their last victory in the tournament was recorded all the way back in 2007.
Bafana Ba Style’s victories against Chiefs in the MTN8 competition have come in the quarterfinals – a 2-0 away victory in 1993 and a convincing 4-1 home win in 2012. On the other hand the Glamour Boys nearly missed the train into the top eight, with their luck coming in after defeating TS Galaxy in their last match of the domestic season, thus qualifying for this season’s MTN8.
“I think it will be a tough game, two big clubs in the first round of the MTN 8, [both teams] will want to go through and obviously win it. It’s a big game and a good way to start the new season off. They are at the back of coming from the Champions League final, they will be motivated, coming into this game I’m sure they will come with a positive mindset. They’ve got a new coach as well, I think we can expect a different Chiefs compared to last season.”
Coetzee is optimistic to start the season on a good note and urges the supporters to keep on rallying behind the team: “Keep supporting us, remember it is the first game of the season, without making any excuses we are ready, we are going into this game to win it and I think that will set a benchmark for us going into the start of the league games.”
“It can only be positive for us to win it but, this is football, anything can happen. Whatever the results may be, keep supporting us and I am sure we will deliver this season.”
Mamelodi Sundowns face Kaizer Chiefs in the MTN 8 Cup Competition on Sunday 15, August at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium. The game will be televised live on SuperSport and SABC, kick-off is 15h00.
The sooner we fire those 3 idiots on the bench the better,Mvala can’t play ahead of Jali.This is almost the same lineup as the one that lost against Chiefs in the league,these coaches don’t learn or they work for us and support Chiefs.
I don’t think our Wisemen wants to win this game or they are underestimating Chiefs let’s hope they will prove us otherwise.
We bought strikers and we have good in them but we chose to strike with Zwane partnering Shalulile whereas the strikers are sitting on the bench, to me it doesn’t make sense to bench them even its their first game.
If we win today it will be a lucky concerning our line up today.
Wrong first 11 and I can see he wants his own team now . It’s wrong choice
Our players are holding the ball for too long I thought they will change this year from that and the main culprit is none other than Zwane .
The boyz played very well, the starting eleven in particular, even though I doubted them. All our substitutes never pitched up. Well done to the three coaches, it shows they know what they’re doing. We should’ve buried those Zebras under an avalanche of goals in the 1st half.
The 3 Wisemen got the starting eleven very wrong. I was not going to forgive them if they lost that game.Mvala ahead of Mkhulise and Jali was unforgivable tactical error. The less said about Safranko the better. We won’t be lucky next time if we continue with this kind of lineup. I thought the technical team learn with Leopards game in Thohoyandou that Mvala give us nothing both defensively and offensively