Badi Aouk of Wydad Athletic Club during the 2019 AF Champions League match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad Athletic in Rabat, Morocco. Photo: EPA/STR
Mamelodi Sundowns place pre-season focus on Caf Champions League
Mamelodi Sundowns are determined to improve in their quest to be crowned the club kings of Africa even if it means spending their pre-season away from home.
Badi Aouk of Wydad Athletic Club during the 2019 AF Champions League match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad Athletic in Rabat, Morocco. Photo: EPA/STR
Mamelodi Sundowns are all set to do the bulk of their pre-season training in North Africa in a bid to improve their Caf Champions League performance.
Downs reached the semi-final stage last season before losing 2-1 on aggregate against Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca. The Champions League final of 2018/19 will be replayed after a controversial forfeiture in protest over a lack of VAR.
The tournament has been dominated by sides from the North of the continent and management feel that mastering conditions in that part of the world would be a boon to the Tshwane-based outfit.
“We have planned our pre-season‚ we just have to fix the games according to what we are possibly going to face in the group stages‚” the Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane told the Sowetan.
“My pre-season will be North Africa. I am looking past the group stages because in the last eight you are going to find one team from that region.
“I also want to do TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi and I won’t mind going to Angola or Zimbabwe or Zambia.”
Mamelodi Sundowns waiting on Motsepe
Assistant coach Manqoba Mngqithi revealed that the technical team are awaiting approval from club chairman Patrice Motsepe before embarking on an ambitious pre-season preparation scheme.
“We have submitted the plan but nothing has been confirmed yet‚ we hope it will be signed off soon.
“We are not under pressure because we want to play those friendly matches in the later stages of our programme‚” he said on Tuesday.
Mosimane is in Egypt taking in the early stages of the Africa Cup of Nations leaving Mngqithi to oversee the return of the bulk of the squad for pre-season medicals. Mosimane is expected to return in time to take charge of preparations on Thursday.
“I believe that he (Mosimane) will be back with us for the start of training on Thursday‚” Mngqithi said.
Sundowns played against Chiefs in the very first Shell Helix Ultra Cup ahead of the last PSL season but are rumoured to have been replaced in the fixture by Cape Town City.
