Semi-final games likely to be close

R34-MILLION SOCCER 13 POOL TOMORROW!

Cape Town City and Lamontville Golden Arrows will be hoping home advantage in the first legs of the MTN8 semi-finals this weekend gives them an advantage in their clashes with Mamelodi Sundowns and Swallows FC respectively.

Tomorrow’s Arrows-Sundowns clash headlines a carryover Soccer 10 pool that starts with R100,000 in the pot and should total over R1.5 million. And the Soccer 13 pool on the day starts with a massive R11-million carryover and is set to total R34 million! There’s big money to be won so play both pools with TAB.

Arrows go into the game at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on the back of a thorough midweek beating in Pretoria at the hands of SuperSport United and Cape Town City were unimpressive at home last Sunday.

Of the four semi-finalists, Swallows FC have looked the sharpest with wins over Orlando Pirates and Royal AM and a draw on Wednesday against AmaZulu.

Swallows have lost several key players to Kaizer Chiefs, but have beefed up their squad and look fitter than many other sides at this stage.

Their pressing game gets their opponents on the back foot and if they can keep it up, they will be among the challengers for the PSL title.

Cape Town City, who host Swallows at the Athlone Stadium on Sunday, have changed their approach since Eric Tinkler returned as coach.

Previously under Dutch coach Jan Olde Riekerink, they played an attractive attacking game, but while they had the second-highest goal tally in the league, they were the second-worst defence.

Tinkler has been working on fixing the cracks at the back and will play a more counter attacking game, rather than possession-based football. He has already said that “winning ugly” could be a feature of their performances this year.

Sundowns have started slowly and scored only one goal in their last two matches - and that from the penalty spot.

Their co-coach Rhulani Mokwena said this week that they had anticipated they would be slow in getting out of the starting blocks, but also insisted winning the MTN8 was a priority.

Arrows are always tricky because much of their play is free-running.

They have built a solid defence and going forward are capable of ripping apart any team.

They lack consistency though because of many basic errors. Expect both semis to be close.