If current form is anything to go by, the scales could be titling in favour of Mamelodi Sundowns ahead of their clash against Orlando Pirates.
|||
If current form is anything to go by, the scales could be titling in favour of Mamelodi Sundowns ahead of their league clash against Orlando Pirates on Wednesday night.
Pirates have been going through a difficult period with some below par performances while Sundowns have been finding their best form. In their last five matches, Pirates managed just four points following three losses, one draw and one win while Sundowns collected nine points after two wins and three draws.
Despite form and stats pointing to their superiority, Downs midfielder Hlompho Kekana says the Brazilians will head to the Orlando Stadium for the Absa Premiership encounter as underdogs.
“We know that Pirates are capable of winning games. The last time we played them, they beat us 3-0. So we go to the game as underdogs,” said Kekana.
“We can’t talk about the problems at Pirates. We have got our own challenges. We have to fix our house before we talk about others. Points are very important. We need points to be in with a chance. We need to continue with the way we have been working. We have to carry on with the mentality.”
Before their last two matches, in which they scored five goals, Sundowns found the going tough as goals were denied them. Kekana says that lady luck is now smiling on them hence their 3-1 and 2-0 win over SuperSport United and Free State Stars respectively.
“What we lacked before was luck. Now we have the luck because we are scoring goals and we will see what happens,” said Kekana.
Sundowns trail log leaders Kaizer Chiefs, who have 36 points, by 13 points and Kekana says the defending Champions, who are second on the log, should work their socks off to narrow the margin between them and Amakhosi.
“We have done well but we still have a lot of work to do. We have to win as many games as we can so that we can minimise the gap between us and the log leaders. If we continue the way we are going, we can make progress and catch up,” said the former SuperSport and Bloemfontein Celtic player.
Pirates also have the hopes of catching up with Chiefs, who lead them by 18 points. Their caretaker coach Eric Tinkler, whose first match in charge was the 2-0 loss to Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend, has challenged his side to rise from the disappointment and turn their season around.
“We have got an important game again Sundowns. We have got to go there and collect three points to turn our season around. It’s important that the players become more confident in their abilities and we try and bring back that team spirit, morale and confidence we used to have in the team,” said the man who replaced Vladimir Vermezovic.
During the loss to Chiefs, Pirates were unable to manufacture a free-flowing game with seamless combinations between the midfielders and the strikers. This contributed to the loss against Amakhosi. The lack of goals is a worry. Tinkler has called on his forwards to start striking again. “In terms of our play is that we start to link up play a lot better. We start creating those opportunities in the final third and we start scoring. We need Kermit (Erasmus), we need (Lehlohonolo) Majoro to start scoring goals but it doesn’t lie with them.
“That responsibility lies with everybody. That’s what is important right now for me,” said the former Bafana Bafana midfielder.
Kick-off is at 7.30pm - The Star
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1wvpQik
