Downs going all out against Tuks

Sundowns out to wrap it up against Tuks

PITSO Mosimane wants to have the Premier Soccer League title wrapped up before Mamelodi Sundowns’ penultimate game of the season at Wits in a week.

PITSO Mosimane wants to have the Premier Soccer League (PSL) title wrapped up before Mamelodi Sundowns’ penultimate game of the season at Wits in a week.

“The last thing I want is to have to go to Bidvest Stadium needing a result,” said Mosimane of the clash between the top two on May 11.

Instead, he is hoping to wrap up the title tomorrow night.

That depends on second-placed Wits’s result tonight. If Wits fail to beat Mpumalanga Black Aces at the Mbombela Stadium, Sundowns will be crowned champions tomorrow if they beat second from bottom University of Pretoria away.

“We don’t want to be playing for our lives, when we go to Bidvest Stadium. So, we will be going all out against Tuks. I am happy also we’ve got a better goal difference because you never know, we might not win against Tuks, we might draw.

“So, therefore, I’m treading carefully and taking it slowly. We’ve come from far. We are not going to let it go and become overexcited. No ways. But if we don’t win against Tuks, we are going to make sure we don’t lose,” he said.

With three rounds of league matches to come, Sundowns opened up a six-point gap over Wits with their 3-1 victory over Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend.

It was a vindication of Mosimane’s decision to continue playing virtually the same starting line-up through several weeks of two games per week.

He said questions about growing signs of fatigue and wariness were legitimate, but added that his stubbornness made him persist with his belief that the nucleus of his team could handle the increasing burden.

He also broke with routine before the Chiefs encounter.

“Usually, we would have had a long video analysis, both for the team and individually, of our performance from the previous game. But we didn’t even watch our draw at Ajax. Instead, I put on the first 30 minutes of the Telkom Knockout final, where we beat Chiefs and said to my players, ‘we are the same team, same opponents’.

“I was hoping for shock therapy,” Mosimane said.

At the other end of the table, Maritzburg United were left to wonder again what they need to do to cure the problem of giving away silly goals and turning imminent victory into defeat.

For the umpteenth time this season, the relegation-threatened club squandered a myriad golden chances in losing at the weekend, going into the lead against SuperSport United, only to gift their opponents goals and end up losing.

Friday’s 2-1 home loss to SuperSport kept Maritzburg at the bottom of the PSL standings on 20 points.

While the Maritzburg management scratched their heads, bewildered by yet another calamitous cave-in, SuperSport coach Stuart Baxter said the experience of the KwaZulu-Natal club was not unique.

“It’s not only Maritzburg. If you go through every league in the world, games of football are won in the same way,” he said in a reference to the lack of concentration in defence that has bedevilled Maritzburg all season long.

“We call them critical phases; transitions, set plays and critical phases in the beginning of a game, the end of the first half, the beginning of the second half, whenever a goal is scored, whenever the game is stopped. That is why set plays are so dangerous because people switch off. It’s only human.”

Maritzburg’s biggest calamity came in January, when they were 3-0 up at home to Orlando Pirates, but ended up being held to a draw.

In their first game of the season, they led Kaizer Chiefs 2-0 at half time at Soccer City in the MTN8 quarterfinal, but lost 5-3 after extra time.

Maritzburg, who have taken only seven points at home all season, but done much better on the road, are next away at Orlando Pirates on Saturday.