Mamelodi Sundowns will take on cross-town rivals SuperSport United in the MTN8 quarterfinal clash at Tuks Stadium on Sunday – and co-coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed his biggest concern.
The much-anticipated Tshwane derby will kick off at 18:00 in the evening.
Mokwena has hailed Gavin Hunt’s ability to influence his team to win games under pressure positively – and warned his Sundowns players to avoid the same fate as the new kid on the block Richards Bay, whom they defeated 1-0 in a league match on Wednesday.
The former Orlando Pirates coach claims that resilience is a hallmark of Hunt’s team.
“They play very aggressive percentage football, they have a good striker in [Bradley] Grobler, and it depends on who they partner him up with. If it’s a [Thabang] Sibanyoni who played in the last game, he’s not going to play the next match, and Aubrey Mngoma played as a 10.
“[Thamsanqa] Gabuza came in as a sub and did very, very well against Pirates, and they played with that front four and maybe even Gamphani Lungu, who I’ve seen [Wednesday] in last night’s match. He played as a wingback.
“He could still bring Siya Nhlapho to the right back and then move Lungu upfront. [It’s a] very difficult team, [they have] good and very strong three centre backs with Tyson [Thulani Hlatswayo], Luke Fleur and [Thatayaone] Dithlokwe,” Mokwena explained during the MTN8 press conference.
However, he went on to tell the media that even a dominant performance at Tuks may not be enough to avoid defeat. But he is confident of maintaining their excellent display from midweek victory.
“The players have been in this situation many times already, they’ve got the experience, and I always say that the game belongs to the players and therefore the responsibility of putting in a very good performance is up to the players, and they know that.
“They’ve got the experience of performing in games like this, and I am sure that we will give a very good performance on Sunday,” added the 35-year-old mentor.
On taking the mouthwatering derby encounter to the University grounds, Mokwena said: “We are happy to play there [Tuks Stadium], for the direction that the club is taking, from a commercial and a marketing perspective. If you look at the average age of a Sundowns supporter, you will see that many of them fall into that age category of scholars and tertiary education sort of citizens.
“Therefore, bringing that game to them and allowing them to be within walking distance to the stadium, making sure that they also get to witness and get a taste of watching their favourite club play, it’s something that I think is a master stroke from the club and we are just very happy because also the field is relatively very good.”
