Sundowns technical team identify Gallants’ danger-men ahead of Cup final

Manqoba Mngqithi and his Mamelodi Sundowns technical team have identified the danger-men in Marumo Gallants, whom they play against on Saturday in the Nedbank Cup final at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.

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Mngqithi says if they are to stand a good chance of claiming the title and complete a domestic treble, they will have to make sure that they neutralize and nullify the game play of a few individuals in Dan Malesela’s side.

“The good part about Dan’s team is that it has got three important players that make the team function. One of them is Miguel Timm, who I believe is grossly undermined in the league but he is one of the best midfielders. They also have Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo who I regard highly,” said Mngqithi.

“He is very dynamic, he is good in the counter game and pressing and he also scores goals. They also have Celimphilo Ngema who they call Zizou (nicknamed after Zinedine Zidane) because he is a very intelligent player. He creates a lot of goals in that team and he is very important for them. They are three people who we must look at closely. They also have offensive fullbacks who can cause us problems if we are not careful,” he added.

Sundowns have eight draws in the league this season and Gallants are one of the sides that took some joy from Downs in their own backyard.

Malesela has played Sundowns a couple of times before and most of those matches turned out to be thrilling encounters. Mngqithi hopes for the same on Saturday.

“The good thing about games between Sundowns and teams that are coached by Dan Dance is that the teams are both ultra offensive and they are teams that don’t sit back, we will be going all out and that makes it a very interesting game for the spectators. The profile of that team has improved from last season,” said the Masandawana mentor.