SuperSport destiny in own hands

SuperSport United could not have kicked off the year and second half of the 2019/20 Absa Premiership campaign any better than beating Gauteng rivals Kaizer Chiefs and closing the gap between themselves and log leaders Amakhosi.

United are third while crosstown neighbours Mamelodi Sundowns are hot on the heels of the Glamour Boys in a title race that SuperSport coach Kaitano Tembo (right) described as “do or die”. “The second round is dog-eat-dog, it is not going to be easy for any team because teams are looking for points and for us, we just have to try and take it game by game and concentrate on closing the gap,” said Tembo.

With Chiefs having dropped two points in their closing game of last year and dropped all three in their 2020 opener, Tembo says it is possible to catch-up and overtake Chiefs but admits that Matsatsantsa A Pitori need to do the job themselves and not rely on other teams to do them favours.

“This takes me back to the game against Chippa United, we dropped three points and the leading team dropped two points and we could’ve closed the gap but we didn’t do that. We need to try and win our next match and that is the only way to take advantage because we can’t rely on other teams to do the business for us,” said the United mentor.

The elephant in the room, however, is the future of versatile player Aubrey Modiba. The 23-yearold is out of action nursing a quad pull and Tembo is aware that he might leave at the end of the season as Sundowns have shown keen interest in Modiba.

“At the moment I have to focus on the players who we have and right now Aubrey is our player,” said Tembo as Modiba is in his final six months of his current deal with capital city giants.