Mamelodi Sundowns defender Keanu Cupido has discussed what will be needed for his side to have a chance to compete with Borussia Dortmund in their FIFA Club World Cup clash tomorrow at the TQL Stadium.
Sundowns meet the Bundesliga giants in Cincinatti, Ohio tomorrow, with Cupido expected to be back in the starting line-up after rewarding head coach Miguel Cardoso with an impressive performance in his start against Ulsan HD.
“Phyiscally I will be ready yes, still have time to recover, I feel I will be ready, I know it will be hot, so I just need to manage myself, manage the game and I think I can be ready,” he said, having been replaced in the second half in Orlando in the first match.
Cupido then opened up on the differences of the challenge, having analysed the South Koreans and now German’s for the clash tomorrow.
“We playing a German team who love pressing, they press high, they more compact and I felt this is a game they need to show ourselves… we are going to suffer a lot without the ball,” he said.
“If we can suffer, if we can work hard together as a team, run more than them, we might get something out of this game. As a team we know where we stand, we know what we need to do, without the ball we need to suffer and suffer together.
“We can’t have people cheating in a game like this, it’s a game where everyone needs to give 110% percent and when we have the ball, Sundowns don’t change when we have it.
“We want to always keep the ball, play the way Sundowns play – that’s what we have done this season. We have not changed our approach to any games, we always play the way Sundowns play.”
The two sides meet tomorrow at 18h00 (GMT+2, with South Africa being six hours ahead in the time zone in the United States of America, which will mean a mid-day kickoff at 12h00 for the Brazilians.
