Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi was excited to see his side open a four-point gap between them and second-placed AmaZulu following their 2-0 victory over Maritzburg United at Loftus Versfeld yesterday.
Goals in either half by Ricardo Nascimento and Gift Motupa were enough to hand the Brazilians their second successive victory and are on course for their fourth league title in a row.
They have a chance to make it seven points clear when they complete their last game in hand against TS Galaxy on Sunday at Mbombela Stadium.
“It was always important to play these games in hand and win the three points because it is important for us to dominate the space to put pressure on people who are competing against us,” Mngqithi told the media after the match.
“It was not going to help us to get a draw today [yesterday] or a loss. We’ve had some hiccups because of the number of games that we played in a very short space of time.
“We ended up not being able to have full functionality. But immediately, when we got a little bit of a breather towards our [Orlando] Pirates match, we knew the team would be stronger.
“Probably for the next matches, we would be in a good space. If we can get an extra day somewhere again, it will benefit us because it is not fair physiologically to the players. It has done a lot of damage than good, but nobody seems to be aware of that.”
The 50-year-old was also pleased with the performance of Mutupa, who scored the second goal and believes he will help them going forward.
“We made him understand what it is expected of him. We’ve made him understand himself because at times players don’t even know their full potential, and we have been saying the capacity that he has, there were many doubts about Motupa coming here,” he said.
“But I’m sure now they can understand why we brought him because we had to work on his ankle. That’s the reason why it kept him out for long.
“But I still believe he also has another assignment to work a little bit more on his strength to make sure he can help us going forward. I believe there is a lot we can benefit from him. He got a lot to give to Sundowns.”
Despite the defeat, Maritzburg coach Ernst Midderndorp remains optimistic that they will still survive relegation. "We can't be thinking of top eight or anything else, right now our focus is to get points in our up-coming matches," Midderndorp said.
Mngqithi thrilled with four-point lead on top of log
Brazilians on course for 4th consecutive league title
Image: Backpagepix
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi was excited to see his side open a four-point gap between them and second-placed AmaZulu following their 2-0 victory over Maritzburg United at Loftus Versfeld yesterday.
Goals in either half by Ricardo Nascimento and Gift Motupa were enough to hand the Brazilians their second successive victory and are on course for their fourth league title in a row.
They have a chance to make it seven points clear when they complete their last game in hand against TS Galaxy on Sunday at Mbombela Stadium.
“It was always important to play these games in hand and win the three points because it is important for us to dominate the space to put pressure on people who are competing against us,” Mngqithi told the media after the match.
“It was not going to help us to get a draw today [yesterday] or a loss. We’ve had some hiccups because of the number of games that we played in a very short space of time.
“We ended up not being able to have full functionality. But immediately, when we got a little bit of a breather towards our [Orlando] Pirates match, we knew the team would be stronger.
“Probably for the next matches, we would be in a good space. If we can get an extra day somewhere again, it will benefit us because it is not fair physiologically to the players. It has done a lot of damage than good, but nobody seems to be aware of that.”
The 50-year-old was also pleased with the performance of Mutupa, who scored the second goal and believes he will help them going forward.
“We made him understand what it is expected of him. We’ve made him understand himself because at times players don’t even know their full potential, and we have been saying the capacity that he has, there were many doubts about Motupa coming here,” he said.
“But I’m sure now they can understand why we brought him because we had to work on his ankle. That’s the reason why it kept him out for long.
“But I still believe he also has another assignment to work a little bit more on his strength to make sure he can help us going forward. I believe there is a lot we can benefit from him. He got a lot to give to Sundowns.”
Despite the defeat, Maritzburg coach Ernst Midderndorp remains optimistic that they will still survive relegation. "We can't be thinking of top eight or anything else, right now our focus is to get points in our up-coming matches," Midderndorp said.
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