Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi claims his side boasts a slight physical advantage ahead of their encounter with Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend.
The Brazilians play hosts to Amakhosi in the DSTV Premiership on Sunday, with their unbeaten status in the league this season on the line. The defending champions boast an unbeaten run that could stretch to 22 games if they avoid defeat at the hands of Amakhosi.
Looking ahead to their upcoming encounter, Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi explained playing Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday ‘is a little better’. While this game isn’t a title deciding clash, Kaizer Chiefs will be looking to end the unbeaten status of their rivals. Sundowns come into the fixture having played out to a goalless draw with Amazulu on Wednesday.
Even though they’ve been knocked out of the Nedbank Cup by TTM, Mngqithi explains that the players have been able to stay fresh amidst a busy schedule of playing in three competitions alongside. He gave kudos to the conditioning team for their efforts in keeping the players in pristine condition.
“Our conditioning department always come up with good strategies to. Even though we had a team that has played so many matches and minutes in the legs, we matched Amazulu. The truth is, we do a lot of good work in terms of our recover program work because we are used to playing a lot of matches like now. It’s just unfortunate that I cannot disclose everything we do to try make sure our players always have a little bit of an edge in as much as they play so many matches. The truth is, we have played probably 12 matches in less than 30 days and we hang in there,” Mngqithi told the media after the clash against Amazulu on Wednesday.
“We always push the team to always make sure we are fresher. This Chiefs match is a little bit better because it gives us an extra day. At least we played on a Wednesday and we are playing on a Sunday. So we’ve got that one more day that we hardly had in previous matches. So we are hoping the team will be slightly better coming into this Sunday’s match.”
Sundowns will have the added incentive of knowing that a win will further dent the chances of Chiefs making it into the top eight. Amakhosi currently sit in 11th place ahead of the anticipated encounter at the weekend.