Mngqithi: Champions Sundowns have set their set sights on 69 points
Mamelodi Sundowns will not be taking their feet off the gas in their remaining three matches in the DStv Premiership campaign.
The Brazilians were crowned league champions on Wednesday to become the first team since the advent of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in 1996 to win the league title in four successive seasons.
They wrapped up the championship‚ their 11th since 1996‚ in domineering style as they still have three matches to play against Swallows FC on Saturday and Bloemfontein Celtic and Cape Town City next week.
Coach Manqoba Mngqithi said their remaining games give them an opportunity to push for 69 points.
“We would have loved to go beyond the 71 points that we got in one of the championships but now we can only get as far as 69 points and that’s what we are pushing for‚” said Mngqithi.
“The plan is still to try and win the remaining matches because as a team we always want to create our own benchmarks.”
Some of the players did not get enough game time during the season and Mngqithi indicated that they may give those players opportunities even though there won’t be wholesale changes.
Some of the players expected to be given opportunities are goalkeeper Ricardo Goss‚ Khuliso Mudau‚ captain Hlompho Kekana‚ Mothobi Mvala‚ Lesedi Kapinga‚ George Maluleka‚ Keletso Makgalwa and Haashim Domingo.
“We will try to give other players a chance but I do not want to promise much. I don’t want us to lose much of the rhythm because we have a responsibility towards the last cycle of matches that we are going to play.
“Inasmuch as we will give other players a chance to play‚ truth be told‚ we will also want to win matches. Every match that we play‚ we play it to win because we have a very big responsibility towards making sure that we set our own records‚ we set our own standards as a team.
“So far there are a lot of positives‚ one if the fact that up until this points we have dominated 99 percent of our matches.
“We have only had that poor possession against Cape Town City but we still won that match 3-0‚ but all the matches we dominated and that is one of the things that we want to achieve. The personality of the team‚ in terms of dominating‚ is very important on the ball.”