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Mokwena – We’ve Prepared The Pitch For SuperSport

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says the work they’ve done at Lucas Moripe Stadium will make for a spectacle as SuperSport United host them in the Tshwane Derby.

SuperSport will be playing their first home game at the venue, which Sundowns helped get back up to standard in terms of the pitch and maintenance which was deemed not up to PSL standards earlier this year.

Something that was enforced as the pitch at Loftus Versfeld was being relayed – and saw SuperSport take their home games to TUT Stadium and Peter Mokaba in Polokwane.

“No good game. I’m happy that we’ve prepared the stadium for SuperSport United. So we play on a very, very good pitch,” Mokwena said about the Tshwane Derby at Moripe.

“And when we play on a good pitch, that’s one of the conditions you need for a good game. You need three conditions for a good game you need a good team which is Mamelodi Sundowns. 

“You need a good pitch which is I think now at Lucas we have a very, very good pitch. And then you need a good opponent. 

“We have SuperSport United and so those three conditions for sure. Put us in a space where we expect a very, very good derby on the weekend [Wednesday].”

With Sundowns one point behind league leaders Cape Town City, with five games in hand, after not playing league football since September – Mokwena admits it won’t be too much of a challenge to switch the players on from a mental aspect.

SuperSport trail City by two points, meaning a win over Masandawana could see them lift to the summit of the South African top-flight.

“It’s difficult to speak about that [not playing league football for two months] because the reality is we just go one game at a time,” he said.

“We try to, in fact not one day at a time, one session at a time, one match at a time, and we try to win the day, we try with whatever we is to participate in, we do it to the best of our ability and if it’s a friendly game, we try to win the friendly match.

“If it’s a small-sided game in training we try to win that, it’s the mentality we try to instil and that helps because then you don’t have to play tournaments or games – or matches in relation to the title, competition but play them with the objectives and mentality to try and win.”

The game will kickoff in the capital city at 19h30 on Wednesday evening.

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