Mamelodi Sundowns Co-Head Coach Rulani Mokwena says having arrived in Lubumbashi, the team are on track for their CAF Champions League game against TP Mazembe.
Mokwena was speaking after Sundowns arrived in the DRC, after a brief flight from South Africa.
Mokwena says it has all been smooth so far.
“Yeah, I think, of course, the travel was okay, pretty decent in fact, we woke up extremely early to catch the 8am flight. And then and then we were we were in Lubumbashi in time for our lunch. And to come onto the pitch,” Mokwena told the club’s media department.
“Fortunately, the environment in relation to the weather conditions suited us perfectly, because it was extremely overcast with a little bit of light showers for us, which is good.”
“Because we were expecting very extreme conditions with high levels of heat. So it was good, just to get some form of activation, some form of prehab rehab work, and activate the body for proper training in the next few days, before the match.”
It was just a light session for the team on their arrival.
“Well, we did some prehab work. And some injury prevention work, some activation, particularly on the major muscle groups, this is very important at this part of the season, and also in relation to the traveling that we do, and particularly because we sit for two, three hours on the flight, another hour or so on the bus.”
“So it’s important that you wake the muscles up and and you don’t keep them dormant. So that you try to to put yourself in a good position not to incur any sort of muscular injuries.”
Mokwena says TP Mazembe are going to be difficult opponents, especially because they are desperate for three points.
“Yeah, interesting team, very good team. Defensively very, very strong.”
“We’ve watched their last three matches. They played the derby. They played both Al Hilal and Belouizdad. So in relation to what we have seen, we know that it’s a 4-4-1-1.”
“But it will be very interesting because we still have to take to tactically activate ourselves tomorrow and make sure that we are ready for a team that’s got very complex personalities, can be very aggressive, push the wingers and the fullbacks very, very high, but they can also be very conservative and sit in a block and play on counter attack because they’ve got very fast players up front.”
“So it will be very interesting to see what sort of personality they adopt, particularly because they need the three points more than us.”
