Ahead of their Nedbank Cup semi-final against Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila, Marumo Gallants coach Dan Malesela has said he will leave the ‘mind-games’ to his opponents.
Gallants are the defending champions of the cup, however, they won it before the club changed their name, and so it is actually their opponents’ name that is engraved on the trophy.
This ‘new’ Tshakhuma returned to the professional fold at the start of the season, after Lawrence Mulaudzi bought Royal AM’s GladAfrica Championship franchise, after AM had bought Bloemfontein Celtic’s DStv Premiership status.
Tshakhuma coach Lucky Nekulau had previously stated that they are defending champions, but Malesela wasn’t going to get involved in the mind-games of their opponents and said talk is just a waste of time.
“Nah, no, no, no, no, no, my motto has always been focus less on the opponents, ” Malesela said at the open media day on Wednesday.
“Focus on your team on what we can do, because see, we are trying to dictate every time so we don’t play second fiddle to the other team.
“Yes, we respect that they will also be on the field, that they pose challenges and whatever. But we really need to focus on ourselves.
“People talk, I’ve heard people talking in football for a long time, talking doesn’t play football, it’s just mind games, that’s why I don’t resort to mind games. Because they’re just a waste of time.
“You get into a match, then you get surprised, you know, it’s a different ballgame. When you talk outside of football, it’s another thing. But it makes the game interesting. It attracts people.
“Fortunately for me, I’m not for that game, and I’m not part of that game.”
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Malesela said they will only be missing Ayanda Nkili and Thabo Mnyamane, otherwise they have a clean bill of health.
“Ja, we are looking good,” he said.
“But we still have Ayanda (Nkili) out, we have Thabo (Mnyamane) out, we won’t have them for this match. But fortunately, Junior (Dion) is coming back, ja, other than that, we have a clean bill of health we are okay.
“With no disrespect to the players that are replacing them, when you have certain players that were in your rhythm, Ayanda was always playing and when he goes out, there’s a bit of a change, but I think Tshepo (Gumede) plugged in very well in the last match, maybe a few mistakes here and there but other than that, he did very well. So he’s been playing, so we have confidence in him, and we hope he will do well in the match.”
Dan Dance couldn’t resist 🕺 pic.twitter.com/Cf32hRqH4R
— iDiski Times (@iDiskiTimes) March 9, 2022
