Are there leaks in the Sundowns boat?
The Mamelodi Sundowns boat is not sailing as smoothly as it usually does. The Brazilians cannot stomach another defeat following a winless run in the last three games which saw them losing to Kaizer Chiefs, drawing with Baroka FC and losing to Golden Arrows in the league.
They will try to redeem themselves tomorrow in the Telkom Knockout semifinals at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium, against the same Arrows side that handed Downs their first league loss away from home this season. Abafana Bes’thende are motivated by the possibility of making their first cup final in a decade, and Sundowns’
assistant coach Manqoba Mngqithi was the man in charge of Arrows in 2009 when they won their only top flight cup to date, the MTN8. Mngqithi is still fond of the KwaZulu-Natal side but he would not want to see Arrows advance to the final at Downs’ expense.
“It will not be easy for anyone to swallow another defeat now. We will try to give it our best shot and see what we can get. It would not be nice for a team like Sundowns to lose again against the same team ... we have a responsibility as a technical team and the players know that they have a responsibility to take the team to the final and to give our supporters something,” said Mngqithi.
“We have not had a good run of late, we played to a draw against Baroka and we lost to Kaizer
Chiefs and Arrows, those results are not the best results when you look at the quality that we have. We know that the team is in capable hands, the coach is doing a good job and we have a technical team that look at the fundamental aspects that can help us win the game,” he added.
“I think God works in mysterious ways and I don’t think Arrows will feel bad if we beat them in the cup now because at least they got the three points (from us), so let’s share this thing. It would have been nice for us to win both games and going into this one, people are taking Arrows for granted, they have not lost again at home and Steve (Komphela) is doing a good job there. They are playing some good football... I have not seen Arrows play such good football in a very long time.”