Coaches playing mind games ahead of Tshwane derby

Mind games from coaches involved in a derby will always lay the foundation for the occasion, and this has certainly been the case with Gavin Hunt and Rulani Mokwena.

The two will look for a checkmate in the capital city derby when Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United meet on Monday at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

Downs are sitting comfortably at the summit of the DStv Premiership, while Matsatsantsa A Pitori are third, trailing the defending champions by 13 points.

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Mokwena has suggested that Hunt is being modest in public about United’s chances of mounting a serious challenge to Bafana Ba Style.

“Gavin said there was no title race but I can say that in the background, he tells his players that the title race is on and what I say to the players is that there is no title that is won in January. This is what our mentality is because it takes more than 40 points to win the league,” said Mokwena.

Meanwhile, Hunt fell short from branding Mokwena as a liar, as he completely distances himself from the championship talk.

“I haven’t said a word about the title chase, and I am not lying. I don’t even look at the race because I know we are a lot of points behind Sundowns,” said Hunt.

“They are on 40 points in 16 games and they can probably get to 70 points and who is going to catch that? I am not saying the league is done but it is going to be a big ask for anybody to go there.”

SuperSport are the last team to beat Sundowns in the league as Hunt outclassed Downs to win 2-1 in the reverse fixture. However, Mokwena says the chances of being on the wrong side of that scoreline are a lot slimmer this time around.

“The first starting point for me was the game that they beat us and I have picked up a few interesting things. We showed the players how they lost that game and in retrospect, having watched that game and remembering my talk at half-time, we were not so good,” said Mokwena.

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He adds: “We had the mentality of having already beaten them in the MTN8 and that was not the right mentality but we have come a long way since that match. We don’t get motivated by revenge because revenge is a motivation that comes from a darker side. We are motivated by our ambition and our goals which come from a lighter side.”