SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt says their CAF Confederation Cup clash against defending champions USM Alger is a big one in terms of getting their campaign back on track.
United hosts the Algerian giants in their second Group Amatch at the Peter Mokaba stadium on Sunday afternoon (15:00) having lost their opening match 1-0 to Egyptian side Future FC.
The Algerian side won their opening match 2-0 against Al Hilal Benghazi and are currently leading the group with three points while Hunt’s side is third on the log with no point leaving the group open for any side to stake a claim.
Hunt says United have got to capitalise on their home-ground advantage.
“Well the home games are the important thing,” said Hunt at the pre-match press conference.
“The difference when you play most North African teams, home and away they are completely different sides.
“I mean when they play at home they get a huge crowd so there is not going to be that factor for them tomorrow and generally overtime and experience for the last many, many years these teams come play totally different from home than when they are at home”
“The game tomorrow if we want to stay and keep ourselves competitive in this group we need to try and win these types of matches. So the home matches and three home games will give you nine points.
“I always think that nine will get you in maybe even less but this is a tough group. I mean these three teams, North African teams we’ve drawn their mentalities are good but they are different to home and away there is no doubt about it”
Captain Thulani Hlatswayo admitted this period has been the most testing for their squad which Hunt labelled as being two ends of a scale with very young players and older players. Hlatswayo revealed that they had to leave some players at home when they travelled to Egypt for the group opener to also manage the League games and the load generally.
“It has been because of the number of our squad that we have. Some players didn’t travel to Cairo to make sure that we prepare well for the Sundowns game and like the coach mentioned earlier we didn’t get a result against Sundowns to make sure that we give us a chance before the end of the year.
|Having to travel and all the teams that we have in the group they are up there. So for us as players is to make sure that we are up for a challenge. Like I mentioned with the youngsters that we have I think it will be a good experience for them”
