Huge Soccer 13 pool as Sundowns take on Lobi
PITSO NOT WORRIED IN SPITE OF MIDWEEK LOSS TO CAPE TOWN
It’s a big weekend for soccer fans. Tomorrow’s carryover Soccer 13 pool is set to top R34 million as the battle for top honours in the EPL rages on, while Mamelodi Sundowns continue their campaign on the continent after suffering a midweek PSL setback.
Bouncing back will not be difficult at all says Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane, but there is not much evidence to support his view.
Sundowns lost 2-1 to Cape Town City away on Tuesday as they visibly tired near the end of the game, which was their third in under a week.
Now they play again in the African Champions League tomorrow night a fourth game in 10 days - effectively needing to beat Nigeria’s Lobi Stars to ensure they advance to next month’s quarter-finals.
“Same team, same group, we don’t change a lot,” says the Sundowns coach, who keeps faith with the basic core of his team and is hoping they will handle the physical toil through to the end of the season.
He says he does not need to do any psychological lifting of his side before the game. “They are experienced,” he says of his squad. “They know they have to turn the volume up.
“The Nigerians will sit in and park the bus and we have to guard against counter attacking, but once we get one goal we can go.
It’s a big game. Once we win this one, we don’t have to worry about winning at Wydad.”
Tomorrow’s game at Atteridgeville is the penultimate for Sundowns in their group, which finishes next Saturday 16 March away in Morocco against 2017 African champions Wydad Casablanca.
The top two in the group go through and most TAB soccer punters will see Sundowns as a home banker.
The same is also true of Orlando Pirates, who play tonight in the same competition against Platinum of Zimbabwe and are likely to be too strong.
But that does not necessarily translate positively for the Buccaneers. They have to hope that Horoya of Guinea lose to group leaders, and reigning African champions, Esperance of Tunisia.
That will put Pirates in second place in Group B and leave them needing only to draw away at Horoya in their last group game.