Mamelodi Sundowns are preparing for one of their biggest matches of the season against Mpumalanga Black Aces on Wednesday‚ said Downs coach Pitso Mosimane after his side were held to a 0-0 draw by Lamontville Golden Arrows on Saturday night.
Absa Premiership leaders Sundowns saw their gap over second-placed Bidvest Wits cut from nine points to seven as they could not put away their chances against an Arrows side absorbing pressure at Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Downs face third-placed Aces at the same venue on Wednesday. Mosimane said with the Brazilians now involved in the distracting Caf Champions League‚ his side would like to maintain as big a gap as possible on their chasing teams in the PSL to make life easier for themselves‚ making a win in their next fixture all the more important.
“The Aces game is very important. You play smart. We are disappointed we didn’t win tonight. Because we thought the next four or five games could really give us an opportunity to play our strongest team in Africa‚ and prioritise on that‚” Mosimane said
“But we have to win our league games. Which does make Wednesday’s game bigger. Aces are near to us and if we can win that match it can give us a bit of space and a breather.
“The Chicken Inn game is also lingering in the back of the minds.”
Downs meet the Zimbabweans Chicken Inn in the second leg of their Caf Champions League preliminary round tie at Lucas Moripe on Saturday‚ having lost the first leg 1-0 in Bulawayo.
The Brazilians are going through a crucial period of matches. They saw off Orlando Pirates 2-1 at Orlando Stadium 12 days ago in an important result that preserved their buffer on the chasing teams.
Mosimane admitted that for in-form Sundowns right now‚ the difficulty is preserving their hunger when wins seem to be coming easily — with Saturday’s result a case in point.
“We have to go over that barrier of‚ when it’s difficult‚ we need to push more. The good thing about this is that we have the points‚” The Downs coach said.
“We have to go and try on Wednesday to win and get more points. So there’s no need to panic.”
Mosimane said the PSL could have made life easier for teams playing in Africa had they scheduled more matches in January‚ to make for a less congested February.
“Playing Pirates so soon on the Wednesday [before Chicken Inn] was a thorn in the flesh. Because we gave everything against Pirates‚” he said.
Arrows coach Clinton Larsen was impressed at how his team absorbed pressure against Downs‚ though felt his side lacked a final pass on the counter-attack.
“Every point against any team in this league is precious. It’s absolutely not any different that it’s against Sundowns‚” Larsen said.
“I thought the team executed the gameplan well. We wanted to neutralise Sundowns on the sides and stop the full-backs getting forward‚ and I think our wings Deon Hotto and Andile Fikizolo did a great job on that.
“Musa Bilankulu has brought a lot of stability into our defence. But once again the number of breaks we had‚ and wasteful possession we gave away was disappointing.”
Arrows meet Platinum Stars next at Chatsworth Stadium on Sunday.
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