Downs vs Chiefs – African champs have point to prove
A win against Chiefs will see Sundowns regain the form that saw them crowned African champions.
Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs resume their rivalry on Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
The two giants will clash in a league game at 15:30.
The Pretoria side have had a difficult start to the season despite winning the Caf Champions League last month only claiming one win in their three game, and sitting second bottom in the league.
Last week, Downs were eliminated from the Telkom Knockout in the quarter-final by neighbours Supersport United.
And coach Pitso Mosimane would have told his team that the Caf honeymoon was over following consecutive defeats towards the end of October.
Sundowns’ opponents, Kaizer Chiefs have blown hot and cold this season. After being eliminated from the MTN8, Chiefs got their season back on track with four consecutive wins (in September and October) to claim first place in the table.
But a draw against Baroka in their eighth league game, has seen them drop to third, and their last game was a 6-5 loss to Free State Stars in the Telkom Knockout quarters.
With both teams out of domestic cups, Saturday’s game promises to be a brutal encounter.
It will be the first time that Downs have played one of the Big Teams since being crowned African champions but it seems unlikely they will be at full strength against Chiefs after five of their players were part of the Bafana Bafana team which beat Senegal at the weekend.
A win for Sundowns, will elevate them to 11th in the table, and more importantly, gather momentum into the Club World Cup in Japan in December.
Mosimane though is aware that his side might be eight games behind schedule by the Christmas break so, dropping points before then would make it near impossible to mount a successful title defence when they have to chance games with a huge points deficit.
In another game, Matsatsantsa travel to Polokwane to tackle the high flying Baroka on Saturday afternoon.
Supersport have been the form team of late after beating Pirates and Sundowns in one week.
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