Staff Reporter.
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena says the side need to stay focused as the matches come thick and fast, with their next assignment a CAF Champions League Group A clash against Al-Merrikh in neutral Cairo on Saturday.
Sundowns have looked a little laboured in their last two games, a narrow 1-0 win over another Sudanese side, Al-Hilal, last Friday, and then a 1-1 draw with Baroka FC in the DStv Premiership on Monday.
But Mokwena says they are ready to put those performances behind them, especially the draw in Polokwane.
“It is difficult but we have to soldier on. The good thing is that players have a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with these conditions,” Mokwena said.
“Everything so far has gone according to plan, we are in a very good space and looking forward to what should be an interesting match.
“When you speak about acclimatisation, you speak about changing gears because we came from Polokwane where we played against Baroka on Monday.
“From that match, we were not 100 per cent happy with either the result or the performance, but you have to change gears and be in the right space mentally for the Champions League.
“Some of the contents of our training session was on the psychological shift from the PSL. In the PSL, you get possibilities to win the league because you are consistently the best team with the best players over 30 matches.
“Sometimes you can do that and win matches with a bit of luck but the Champions League is a different monster, particularly in the group stages because you need to be close to perfection and at optimal level of performance.”
Sundowns will be expected to beat Al-Merrikh, but Mokwena is aware of the challenge they bring.
“Both teams are very experienced in this space because we are consistent participants in the group stages of the Champions League. At Sundowns, it doesn’t make any difference whether you are at home or away.
“What is important for us is that we must bring out our best performance and once we can do that we know we can deal with a lot of things on the pitch.
“The Sudanese league has had a lot of disruptions because of political events in the country and the safety of the teams is difficult to guarantee.
“That moved their venue to Egypt and that made it difficult to get updated match footage from them. The good thing is that not a lot has changed and we have gone back to the last four games.”