Sundowns irked by training facilities in Sudan

Mamelodi Sundowns are not entirely happy with the training facilities that they were given in Sudan as they arrived in Khartoum on Thursday to take on Al-Hilal Omdurman in the penultimate Caf Champions League group match. But they are not too bothered as they have already qualified for the quarterfinals. Downs have collected 10 points from four games, sitting comfortably at the summit of Group A ahead of defending champions Al-Ahly.

READ ALSO: Usuthu’s Champions League dream hanging by a thread

“It is not the best of facilities but we expected that. We got a community field within the organization but it is okay, we have to do the best with what we have,” said Downs co-head coach Rhulani Mokwena.

Masandawana took a relatively large squad, as some players have injury concerns. Andile Jali, for one, forced the hand of his coaches to withdraw him last time out when they beat the Red Devils 1-0 at the FNB Stadium, but his issue is not a serious one, as Manqoba Mngqithi revealed that it could have been sorted during the game, but referees would not afford Sundowns doctors the time to realigned his meniscus. Mokwena says the injuries are a concern, which is why it was the first thing they attended to when they touched down in Sudan.

“The first thing we did was work on our activation and injury prevention methods. What that means is that we activate the major muscles in individual players because with long traveling and all the other aspects, we have the possibility of issues with regards to the body. But we have to wake them up and wake up the muscles and try to prepare for the physiological perspective for the match,” said Mokwena, who went on to suggest that their opponents will be tricky, given their ability to switch playing systems.

“They need a win and what we noticed is that they changed the structure against Al-Merreikh, they played a different formation and they had two strikers up top as opposed to their usual 4-2-3-1 formation. But we will see what happens. We have done our work, we have analysed our last four matches since they played us,” said the Downs mentor.

“They are a very interesting team with some good players, some of them are familiar faces like Gerald Phiri who played for ABC and Abdul Ajagun who was at Cape Town City. They are a well-coached team and we expect a beautiful game,” Mokwena added.