The Mzansi diski fraternity is in for a joyride and one hell of a bumper season with all the big three Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs flying the SA flag high in CAF interclub competitions.
With Sundowns having just wrapped up their participation in the Fifa Club World Cup in the US, the Buccaneers and Amakhosi have sailed to Spain and the Netherlands, respectively. They will undergo some intensive training and play a couple of decent friendly matches in Europe.
Chiefs and Pirates must be tired of playing bridesmaid to Sundowns, who won their eighth PSL league title in a row, their 15th overall in the PSL era. The two Soweto giants will want to regain their place at the top of the pile.
Pirates impressed last season, won the MTN8 and reached the semifinals of the CAF Champions League. They’ll want to go a notch higher – you can see by the number and the kind of players they signed in the transfer market.
Chiefs too are on the right track, they got the monkey off their backs after they won the Nedbank Cup, breaking an embarrassing 10-year spell without a single trophy. Amakhosi did not earn the monicker of ‘cup specialists’ for nothing, and they will be seeking more silverware next season.
They have made some decent shopping in the market and will be keen to establish themselves as a force up in the continent.
In the land of total football, Chiefs sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jnr has been watching the proceedings like a hawk at close range. Motaung explained why they opted for the Netherlands: “It’s about cross-cultures and about having a pre-season at a higher level than we are used to, which also has to do with having really competitive training matches.
“Training and playing games in Europe is also about getting players out of their comfort zone. It’s a different environment; it’s about a lot of travelling to the training matches, and it’s about preparing the mindset of the players for the upcoming season.
“We want the players to test themselves against these really strong sides. They will learn from it and will not only become better as individual players but, maybe even more important, improve as a team,” added Motaung Jnr.
According to Pirates, they said that they are using the 12-day camp to build cohesion, to integrate new signings, and lay the groundwork for what promises to be another demanding campaign. The technical team has brought a 32-man squad to Marbella, to test the team’s readiness.
Assistant coach Mandla Ncikazi said: “It’s all systems go. The upcoming season will be tough, so our preparation must cover all possible scenarios. Last season’s group played 52 matches – that kind of workload is only manageable with a well-planned preseason. We have a new crop of players that we need to integrate into the group as quickly as possible.”
After an enterprising Club World Cup, Masandawana coach Miguel Cardoso was pleased with the performance and said that they will be much stronger going forward: “I am very proud of the level of passion that the players showed. We leave the competition and head back to our country with our heads held up. We are much stronger today than we were before we came here. Much, much stronger. We played at a high level, and now, everybody in the world will speak about Mamelodi Sundowns,” said Cardoso.
Can the new season start already…
