Ahead of today’s Nedbank Cup game against AmaTuks, Chippa United head coach says his team is itching to get back on the pitch, and are excited for the game.
The fixture at Tuks Stadium will be the first match of the Nedbank Cup round of 32, as South African domestic football finally returns to action after an inactive January.
Lentjies says AmaTuks will be a tricky opponent, but he feels the team is well prepared to push for a spot in the last sixteen.
“Tuks has been in the Premier League before, but obviously they’ve campaigned in the past few seasons in the NFD,” Lentjies told the club’s media department.
“Always a dangerous team to play against.
“Ja, but you know, it’s more about us because I feel that after this long break, we started coming back on preseason on the 10th of January, I’m sure the players are itching to get back onto the field of play again, and they’ve obviously been excited.
“So (Friday) is the day obviously, I think we’re well prepared, difficult to gauge where we’re going to be so we’ll see once the game starts, what we actually need to do to win the football match.
Chippa reached the final last season, but lost to Tshakhuma (Marumo Gallants), though Lentjies says there’s no extra pressure on the players because of that.
“Ja, maybe, but I don’t think for us. For us it’s just another football match that we obviously want to go to the next round. Like I said, we want to win every match that’s on offer to win, doesn’t matter who we playing against.
“Ja, as much as we finished runners up last season, that’s not something I want to put in the players that we should go all the way.
“Because people actually they just remember the winners of the tournament, they don’t remember who finished, who got knocked out the first round, who got knocked out in the finals, so for us as a new clean slate.
“So starting with Tuks tomorrow, and then we’ll take it one game at a time from there.”
