Sundowns’ Mngqithi prefers limited travel as fixtures mount

ES Setif, Petro Atletico and CR Belouizdad are the three teams Mamelodi Sundowns could face in the Caf Champions League quarterfinals, with the draw taking place today at the Confederation of African Football headquarters in Cairo.

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Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi is hoping to avoid drawing a team far from Mzansi, leaving Angola’s Petro as the best-looking option. Setif and Belouizdad are both from Algeria.

“You always want a team that would give you better travelling, a country where you can get direct flights,” said Mngqithi.

Mngqithi bases his argument based on previous experience in the competition where they’ve spent a lot of time in transit, which leads to some level of fatigue, and that affects their game.

“At this stage of the season when you are playing in three competitions at the same time, you want to minimize the risk of injury and hope for short trips and not spend a lot of time at the airport so that the players can always be fresh. We just emerged from this match against Al-Merreikh (Sundowns finished their group stage campaign with a 3-0 win) and we are playing Swallows on Wednesday [tomorrow] so that says to you we have got a big responsibility to try and keep the team fresh,” he added.

One thing that puts Mngqithi and his technical team at ease is the fact that a majority of the players have had some game time, which gives him and Rulani Mokwena a lot of options as they are vying for an unprecedented haul of four trophies in one season.

Sundowns have already bagged the MTN8, are on the brink of another DStv Premiership title, are favourites in the Nedbank Cup and among the Champions League favourites too.

“The good thing is that we have improved the pool of the team. This is the biggest thing we have done in the past two seasons to make sure that we don’t have too many players who have not had game time. At this stage we can count one goalkeeper – Ricardo Goss – and Promise Mkhuma, who have not played much.

“They are not registered in the Champions League. But the rest of the team has had a chance to play and are available.”