Reconstruction now in progress

SUNDOWNS: CHAMPIONS HOPE TO BE EVEN STRONGER

Michaelson Gumede

‘Reconstruction’ is the buzzword at Mamelodi Sundowns, who have just finished a new building with state-of-the-art facilities for their players and staff.

This idea extends to the squad as Pitso Mosimane has repeatedly said his team are in a reconstruction phase.

Anthony Laffor, who has been at the club since Mosimane arrived six years ago, says the process of rebuilding the team takes time, but they don’t have much time as there is an Absa Premiership title to defend – they host Free State Stars tonight at Loftus Versfeld.

“Sundowns are a big club, they are not just for one player and at the start of every season we go through a lot. When we are not scoring it is frustrating, but the most important thing is that we need to tell ourselves we are regenerating and reconstructing,” said Laffor.

“The last two games we won, we scored one goal in each so you can see things are not really going well because Sundowns are usually a team that scores two or three on average. We don’t need to put ourselves under pressure, it is still too soon ... we still have the second round of the league and it is still a long way to go,” the Liberian added.

Downs are licking their wounds after crashing out of the Telkom Knockout at the hands of Baroka FC, but can afford to smile when they look at their league form. The Brazilians are the only unbeaten team in the league this season and have remained solid at the back in the last two games.

However, Laffor warns against complacency as Masandawana have been goal-shy this season.

“The guys are jelling together already because the last two games that we played (in the league) we did not concede any goals.

“The most important thing is to keep our feet on the ground ... winning two games is not the end of the road. We have set a target to win the championship so it is still soon for us to be complacent.”