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The Brazilians have not enjoyed ideal preparation for what promises to be a tough encounter against a rejuvenated AmaZulu team at Tshwane on Sunday.
Rhulani Mokwena, one of the three Mamelodi Sundowns coaches, has underlined some of the challenges his team has faced in terms of preparing for Sunday’s clash with AmaZulu.
Mokwena was primarily referring to the international break, as the Sundowns saw a large number of their players out of service, not only for South Africa but also for some other countries on the continent.
This has added a challenge for coaches, who are looking to maintain the positive start to the Sundowns season: Masandawana is currently at the top of the league standings with seven points from their three games.
“It has been a good week, but a somewhat complicated week, in the sense that we have had time on the field, and time is very valuable when you are a soccer team,” Mokwena told the media, as quoted by Disiskitimes.
“You want to work on certain schemes, you want to improve certain aspects of your game and you can only do that when you have time on the field. And we have tried to use up that time as best we can.”
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Among the issues faced are some pesky injury issues, as well as the challenge of preparing tactically without all players being present.
“We have had a couple of challenges, of course, because we are a great club, we have a lot of international matches, and then we had some injury problems,” explained Mokwena.
“So we haven’t had everyone back to work on these things, because when you want to work on tactical schemes, you need available players on the field to be able to improve these things, so it’s been a bit of a challenge.” But we are not complaining, we have worked very hard. “
The match against AmaZulu takes place at Loftus Stadium on Sunday. And with Usuthu rejuvenated by a new owner and a string of big-name signings, the Sundowns expect an especially tough encounter.
“They come into this game with a lot of confidence, because they beat Black Leopards 2-0, and they beat Black Leopards very, very convincingly, with a very dominant and very strong performance,” Mokwena noted.
“And they also come to the game with a lot of good feelings in and around their space, because they have recruited well, they have signed some very good players and qualitatively they have a lot to offer, and we should expect a very competitive AmaZulu this season.”
