Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has insisted they’ve tried to prepare as best as they can for facing a “closed-book” team like AS Vita Club in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Vita are one of the sleeping giants in African football, as they’ve struggled in the past few seasons to make it to the CAF Champions League group stages. The DRC giants reached the CAFCL group stages in 2022/23 but finished bottom of their group and were knocked out in the first preliminary round by Angolan side Primeiro de Agosto last season.
Barker emphasised that they playing against a fairly unknown opponent, as they couldn’t get too many Vita matches to watch but must focus more on their own strengths than the opposition.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been easy, sort of figuring out exactly who they have, how they play, but we’ve been able to source some matches from the previous season, the same coach. So we sort of trust that there might be similar principles,” he said in his pre-match presser.
“But we’ve also managed to look at one or two of their friendly matches of late. As we said before, they’re a team that pride themselves as being one of the big clubs on the continent.
“They will always have quality players, of which they do have, especially the sort of attacking wingers, strikers and number 10 are really good players. So it goes without saying that we’re going to have to make sure that we defend really well.
“Obviously, players, looking at their squad, they’re also quite physically, big and strong team. So, when it comes to aerial sort of duals and set-pieces, we’re going to have to really defend those well. And there are not too many weaknesses in a team like that.
“It’s more focusing on what we’ve done well of late and continuing to sort of build on that as a team. As Devin [Titus] said, there is a lot of enthusiasm around the team, a lot of energy around the team.
“We’ve got to play the way we feel is best for us to get results. And that’s playing with a lot of energy and pace, hopefully asking them a lot of questions from a defensive point of view.
“We are also very mindful that it’s probably not an easy place to go travel and play the second leg. So important for us to to try and put in a big performance, positive performance tomorrow, and hopefully we can take something with us to defend away.
“But if not, it’s a two legged affair, so it’s not over after tomorrow, whatever happens, we will adjust, and obviously have the opportunity to also see a bit more about opponent paying into the second leg.
“But for now, it’s just giving the best performance that we can tomorrow.”
The match will kick off at 19:00 at DHL Stadium on Friday evening.
