Ngcongca finally gets to enjoy his family
THE coronavirus pandemic has led to the suspension of most sporting activities in the country, and this has been a blessing and a curse for Mamelodi Sundowns defender Anele Ngcongca.
There’s no South African football team that has been involved in more domestic and continental football than Sundowns this season. In the last eight months, the Brazilians have played in five major competitions – the CAF Champions League, Absa Premiership, MTN8, Telkom Knockout and Nedbank Cup.
So gruelling has Sundowns’ schedule been that the team missed Christmas Day with their families as they were in Algeria, where they were preparing to play USM Alger in the second leg of the group stage matches.
Granted, the Brazilians enjoyed the fruits of their labour as they returned home with maximum points as they finished top of Group C before crashing out in the quarterfinals following a 3-1 aggregate loss to Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
But the Brazilians didn’t have time to lick their wounds. They immediately turned their focus on the domestic season, hoping to close the gap on leaders Kaizer Chiefs, who they trail by four points, and do well in the South African premier club knockout competition, the Nedbank Cup.
However, since the outbreak of the deadly virus in the country, all domestic football activities have been suspended by Safa and PSL, while the country has also been placed under total lockdown as from yesterday until at least April 16.
“It’s been really difficult because we love football. This is our full-time job and we’ve got to put food on the table. But we have to respect the new laws and we have kids that we also need to protect,” Ngcongca said.
“But thank God, I am home with my family now. I am really quite happy to be with them because you know that at Sundowns we are a team that travels a lot. So we just have to use the time wisely and stay indoors.”
This enforced break will make up for lost time in family reunions and the regeneration of the team, but Ngconga is sceptical this could also hinder their momentum in their pursue for the league title and Nedbank Cup when the season finally gets the green light.
“The good part about the break is that we’ll get our energy break.
But the sad part is that it might affect our momentum from the last game that we won against Highlands Park,” the former Bafana Bafana international reasoned.
“You know, I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you can have all the energy but keeping momentum is very important because we were starting to put all our focus on domestic football at this moment.”
Sure, the social distancing process will need all athletes to stay indoors, where they’ll be probably going through proposed training and nutrition programmes from their medical team.
And in the bigger scheme of things Ngcongca knows the importance of adhering to those programs all too well but says it could never be the same as testing yourself against your teammates at training.
“You need your teammates to push you. The motivation that they give you at training is not the same that you’ll get at home.
“But luckily I am close friends with Themba Zwane and Sibusiso Vilakazi so we get to share ideas now and again,” he said.