Big boys ready for a knockout weekend
Pitso Mosimane has dismissed the possibility of fielding a weakened Mamelodi Sundowns team when his side travels to Polokwane tomorrow to face Baroka FC in their Telkom Knockout quarterfinal.
Mosimane said South African fans, particularly Masandawana supporters, would not be happy if he fielded fringe players at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.
“If it was in Europe, it is a given that you give other players a chance but you have to respect how South African fans are, they are not happy with you when you do that, they like the cup,” said Mosimane.
“To be honest, we have to give the other guys a chance, but with the start we have had, we are not really that free-flowing so we are not in a space to really do that.
“We want to try and get momentum, win three games in a row and I know that if Sundowns can go to three they can go to four games and then you know it is fireworks. I am hoping for that – that is why I have to try and make sure we keep consistency,” he added.
One thing that pleases Mosimane going into the knockout tie is that the Brazilians have kept a clean sheet in their last two games. He hopes for another, although Sundowns could be without goalkeeper Denis Onyango, who has not been training with the squad.
“It has been a long time since I have seen my goalkeeper taking the ball out of the back of the net,” Mosimane said.
However, at the back of his mind, the former Bafana Bafana coach is aware that Baroka could prove to be stubborn customers and perhaps take the game to penalties, so the squad spent a lengthy period of his training session yesterday on taking penalties, after Downs were booted out of the MTN8 by Cape Town City in a shootout.
“I have to be realistic because we were knocked out of the MTN8 via the penalties.
“What if we play so well but we don’t score and the goalkeeper is Man-of-the-Match and all that?
“We have to respect football at the end of the day.”