‘I do see the team achieving more than we achieved last season,’ said the Sundowns head coach.
As the criticism rages on about Mamelodi Sundowns’ 1-0 loss against Stellenbosch FC, Manqoba Mngqithi is optimistic about turning their fortunes around. The 53-year-old has come under heavy scrutiny after the first leg of the MTN8 loss to Stellies who are now in the pound seat to reach the final.
The Brazilians start the second leg on the back foot and they must score to have any chance of reaching the cup decider. For Steve Barker and his men, a goalless draw will be enough for them to reach the promised land.
Mngqithi, has however, called for improvement from his charges in order to overturn the 1-0 deficit at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Masandawana failed to control the game against Stellenbosch and only started playing late in the game.
“I do see what we are trying to achieve. I do see the team getting stronger as we progress and I do see the team achieving more than we achieved last season,” Mngqithi said.
“I just felt that we did not want to grab control of the game and we didn’t capitalise on the challenges they had in the wide channels. I think Terrence (Mashego) was open in the beginning of the first half but we were not rotating the ball enough to get into those areas. When we did get into those areas, we always looked potent and I’m very optimistic that we are on the right track.”
Dream final
While there’s talk of a dream final against Orlando Pirates, who still need to overcome Cape Town City in the other semifinal, Mngqithi is not thinking that far. The Buccaneers got the better of Sundowns in the final of this competition last season, as well as the Nedbank Cup final.
“The most important thing is to prepare for this match and go through because when we do that, we’ll be helping ourselves with a chance to get into another final. I don’t think the final against Pirates, we lost because they were a better team, to be honest we committed silly errors even there,” he concluded.
