Speaking from Cairo ahead of their CAF Champions League game against Al-Merrikh on Saturday, Mamelodi Sundowns co head Rulani Mokwena says the team is acclimatising and shifting gears from domestic football to continental.
Sundowns played to a 1-1 draw against Baroka on Monday, before almost two days of travelling to get to Cairo, where they will play the Sudanese club on the weekend.
Having arrived early on Wednesday, the club had their first training session later in the day.
“The training session was good,” Mokwena told the club’s media department in Cairo.
“The focus was more from an acclimatisation perspective.
“And when you speak about acclimatisation, you also speak about changing gears, because coming from Polokwane, Baroka match which we were not 100% entirely happy with the result.
“We were satisfied with the performance but not entirely happy with both the performance and the results to be honest with you.
“But you have to change gears, it’s a different competition, a competition that needs you to be in the right space mentally so that acclimatization helped with regards to that.
“And some of the contents in our training session were based on that psychological shift from the PSL or the local, local domestic sort of front where in the PSL you get possibilities to win the league because you’re the best team consistently with the best players over 60 matches.
“Sometimes you can do that and win matches with a bit of luck and that helps you in the run but the Champions League is a different monster, particularly in the group stages, you need to be very close to perfection, you need to be very close to your optimal level of performances.
“Because it’s only six matches in the group stages to be able to get into the knockouts where we all have a clear understanding that’s when the tournament actually kicks off.”
Sundowns, who beat Al Hilal in their first game, will remain in Cairo to play Al Ahly next week.
