I am sure many of you might have read in an article published on our website yesterday about a journalist, who fell asleep during a press conference I was attending along with Sundowns coach Gordon Ingesund on Thursday.

Unlike our friend from the media who fell asleep the rest of his colleagues who had gathered for the press conference, were very much awake as they threw punches at me from all over the place. By punches what I actually mean is that the question were flying at me hard and fast, ahead of such a crucial game such excitement from the media could be expected.

With so much riding on the game if one were to ask himself what exactly is at stake for us in this game I would give you an easy answer and simply say that a lot rests on this game. The first and foremost thing is that we do not want to lose our grip on the PSL trophy, so to ensure that does not happen we have to be precise, ruthless and efficient in the way we play and dispose of the opposition on Saturday. We cannot and will not afford at any time during the game to allow them the window of opportunity to win the match.

The formula for success against Sundowns is goals created need to be converted, which will ultimately mean that if we convert a few of the early chances that will come our way the game could well be ours. History has taught us that if we let the opposition off the hook early on we will place ourselves at a major disadvantage, when the chances present themselves we need to make them count.

I think most importantly what ultimately is at stake on Saturday is the PSL title, the team that wins this game will have an edge over the rest of the chasing pack and it will be a tough ask to have to have to go try and cut the deficit once more. We also have to take into cognoscente the fact that Sundowns have games in hand over us, I know that it is always said that points are better than games in hand but we must be aware of what grave consequences a Sundowns win will have on our championship challenge.

Having said that I do feel though that the guys have approached the week with a positive frame of mind and are aware that although we might be leading the league table, we are still the underdogs going into this game. Every one of our training sessions over the past week have been fruitful, we took our preparation for this game to a new level as we instituted a number of new innovations to our training regime which will ensure that we are more than ready for Sundowns. We saw last season and when we played against them earlier this season that whoever is more creative, and willing to take a gamble in the opening quarter of the game will be able to dictate the pace of the game.

When we played against Sundowns earlier in the year we lost Siyabonga Nkosi early on in the game through injury, losing him so early in the game really meant that we were on the back foot, as we had to change around our game plan somewhat. Going into Saturday’s game we cannot hide from the fact that Siyabonga will play a crucial part for us, should we wish to be successful against Sundowns? He has really been in a purple patch of form over the past couple of weeks and it is obvious that we would like for him to continue from where he left off against Ajax last weekend.

For me an encouraging sign from the Ajax Cape Town game was our ability to come out of the game with a clean sheet, when we faced Ajax they went into the game on the back of a good goal scoring spree. Our defence will be made to work equally hard against Sundowns and will have to double their efforts in containing Lerato Chabangu, Jose Torrealba and Surprise Moriri. In general Sundowns too have been finding the back of the net with ease, the guys do not need any more reminding that Sundowns could keep them very busy at the back.

Against Ajax Cyril Nzama was able to keep the defence together as Patrick Mayo and Jimmy Tau helped assisted by Ditheko Mototo allowed for us to form an impenetrable wall at the back. In addition a number of fine saves from Rowen Fernandez ensured that we came home the winners, we need another inspired all round performance on Saturday afternoon.

With regards to other team news I am happy to say that Fabian McCarthy completed the week in training without any thing to report on, his availability at the back will definitely be a major plus factor for us. Fabian has a lot of experience at this high level and it is good to know that we have him as an option for the game; on the other hand Siphiwe Mkhonza has not recovered sufficiently enough to be able to consider him for selection.

To all the fans be early at the stadium on Saturday we all know that if we win the battle in the stands we will be able to win the battle on the field of play.

Your Coach,




Ernst Middendorp