Kekana warns Sundowns to expect hostile reception in Tanzania

With the FIFA international window done and dusted, it’s back to CAF Champion League football for Mamelodi Sundowns.

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They will be away to Young Africans of Tanzania in the first leg of the quarterfinal on Saturday.

The Brazilians who are on their way to seventh record-extending DStv Premiership are simply peerless on the domestic front and are yet to lose a match in the league. 

It’s an open secret that the Champions League is at the top of Masandawana’s priority list after losing in the semifinals last season against Wydad Casablanca.

Hlompho Kekana who led Sundowns to their first and only triumph in the Champions League eight years ago urged the team to ignore the hostile reception that awaits them in the East African country.

“Off the field issues actually play a big role in influencing the match and I say that because the home team benefits from that,” Kekana said on the club’s pitchside podcast.

“If you play against players who are in the mood because of the supporters it becomes a very tricky task to overcome but when you speak about the experience of Mamelodi Sundowns on the continent, you are talking about a team that has matured.

“They understand that the demands of the match are actually on the field more than anything. You must try to ignore what might happen outside the pitch. Supporters in Tanzania are passionate. There are really two teams that side, Yanga and Simba FC, and you feel it when you get there.

“When you are in that space as a player, you feel that you don’t belong there but then it gives you some kind of advantage to know that you don’t have anyone but your teammates, so you have to make sure that in order to overcome these obstacles, you have to stick together,” added Kekana.

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Yanga are coincidentally managed by former Sundowns coach Miguel Gamondi who won the league with Sundowns alongside Neil Tovey as co-coaches in 2006.

“We have this ambition of being top five in Africa, you must compete,” Gamondi said, as per The Guardian, a local newspaper in Tanzania.

“Sundowns like Al Al Ahly must be in the finals because they are the biggest teams. If you compare the budget of Sundowns to ours, definitely they must be favourites.”