De Reuck’s travels continue as Sundowns face Champions League away day

The past year has probably been a roller-coaster ride for Mamelodi Sundowns defender Rushine De Reuck. The 26-year-old joined Sundowns from Maritzburg, where the longest travelling he did was a trip from KwaZulu-Natal’s capital to Limpopo. 

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At Sundowns quick jaunts to all over Africa, sometimes via Europe is something he does every other week. The Cape Town born defender has settled so quickly that the Sundowns coaches were able to part ways with veteran defender Ricardo Nascimento without a second thought.   

De Reuck is currently in Egypt with Masandawana where they will stay for two weeks as they have two Caf Champions League fixtures. The first is on Saturday against El Merreikh of Sudan, whose home games are played in Cairo due to the disqualification of their home venue. 

“I’m expecting a very physical game, quite similar to the Al-Hilal game,” De Reuck told the club’s website.

Sundowns won their first Group A game 1-0 beating another Sudanese side Al-Hilal 1-0. 

“We have to be ready as a team and fight for everything. We know that we can hurt them if we use the ball well and take our chances.”

De Reuck says teams in the Champions League are more structured which makes ball rotation a little slower but that does not mean it makes the games easier in any way. 

“I feel in the Champions League it’s a lot more structured and teams are a little bit more clinical. The game seems a bit easier but an easy game on the eye can be very dangerous so we have to stay switched on throughout the match. 

“We have to make sure we give nothing away because every game has those tough moments and we have to be ready.”