Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has admitted that he started to analyse Kaizer Chiefs ahead of their game against Orlando Pirates, but insisted the next match is the most important one for him and his players.
Masandawana are in the middle of a testing ‘English week’ after traveling to Burundian side Bumamuru in the CAF Champions League before facing title rivals Pirates in the DStv Premiership on Wednesday and their MTN8 semi-final second leg against Chiefs on Saturday.
Downs made lightweight of Bumamuru, beating them 4-0 in a game where they could’ve scored even more goals to put one foot in the CAF Champions group stages.
With Pirates now awaiting in the league, Mokwena did admit that he started to analyse Amakhosi because the fixtures are coming thick and fast.
“I’ve said to the players already that I started watching Chiefs, I said to them this morning and I confessed to them because of how tight the schedule is,” he told journalists.
“Because I feel some of the home work with Pirates [after] six, seven games now is done now, is to move a little bit to that.
“But I can’t shift my focus from that, I’ve got move 100% with the players into the next one, so the next one is the most important one.
“It needs all our energies, all our focus and everything that we have is galvanised towards Wednesday’s game and there are no thoughts about what will happen on Saturday.”
Mokwena also insisted that it’s week like this, which test the really big teams that are chasing for multiple pieces of silverware, citing Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City as reference.
“It is a very good test for us, this week is a very good test for us, where we anticipate as we get on with the season, we will get into a space where we will have to play semi-finals, quarter-finals, finals, league title deciders in the same week,”
“Matches that are of consequence in the business end of the season. You’ve seen this with some of the biggest teams in Europe.
“You’ve seen how Man City had to play a championship decider while also preparing for a [UCL] semi-final against Real Madrid or preparing for the final against Inter Milan.
“This is the space where the big teams, with the top players have a challenge with and it is a challenge they accept and the harder it is, the better it is for us because it makes improve and become a better team.
“We’re looking forward to it, but we know how difficult it’s going to be but I think we love it when it’s that difficult.”
