Sundowns sussing out Champions League opponents Coton Sport

The focus will immediately shift to the return of the DStv Premiership after the Fifa World Cup final between Argentina and France.

But for Mamelodi Sundowns, they have not been blindsided by the World Cup and the clash between themselves and Orlando Pirates. Sundowns will take on the Buccaneers on the 30th, marking the return of the league.

Yet they have also kept one eye on the Caf Champions League where they have been drawn with foes Al-Ahly, Al-Hilal Omdurman of Sudan and Cameroon’s Coton Sport. While the Brazilians may be familiar with Ahly and Al-Hilal, it is Coton Sport who Downs have been focusing a lot on.

Masandawana head coach Rulani Mokwena says he is looking to dispatch his advanced team to Cameroon, even though the group stages will only begin in February.

“We have one eye on the Champions League as we have been monitoring the qualifiers to see all these teams and how they play. We also made comparative analysis with regards to trying to check where our level is in relation to their level,” said Mokwena.

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“We already have the analysts working on that. We have the data analyst, performance analysts and they are already trying to download games and get information on that. We will try to get more relevant and more recent information about them and try to get people to travel there so we can have enough preparations,” Mokwena added.

Coton Sport are the most successful team in the Elite One league, having claimed no fewer than 17 league titles.

They also reached the Champions League final in 2008 where they lost to Al-Ahly.
They suffered a similar heartbreak in 2003 where they collected silver medals in the second tier Caf Confederation Cup, branded the Caf Cup at the time.

“We know they are a very competitive team and the most prolific player is a player from Niger called Dauda. We want to be thorough in our preparation, as we always do and we need to tick all of the preparation boxes. It is not only about them but everyone else because we need to do our best to qualify and meet our minimum expectations for the Champions League,” said Mokwena.