Gallants ready for hostility in Tanzania

Marumo Gallants caretaker coach Raymond Mdaka has sounded unfazed by the possibility of playing in front of a hostile crowd in the first-leg of the CAF Confederation Cup quarterfinals against Young Africans.

The match is billed for Dar es Salaam’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium today (3pm SA time). The second-leg is at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg next Wednesday. Young Africans, who are better known as Yanga, are the giants of Tanzanian football and they hardly struggle to fill up their stadium.

“Most of our previous games in this competition were challenging, especially in North Africa, so we expect anything. We won’t let the hostile environment get to us in Tanzania... we must make the players aware that they are protected,” Mdaka said.

“The players know that they must focus on the game because the crowd can easily disturb them. We have preached to our players that if you do well they [the hosts’ fans] can turn against their team and support you.”

Marumo head into today’s game still licking their wounds after a damning 2-0 defeat at home to champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday. The league defeat to the Brazilians left Bahlabane Ba Ntwa needing to rely on other teams for survival as they are three-points away from automatic relegation, going into their last league game of the season against Swallows on May 20.

Mdaka has admitted that it was a challenge to manage the anxiety that stems from their league woes, ahead of today’s Confed Cup showdown. The Marumo caretaker mentor, however, emphasised that they won’t tweak their playing style in Tanzania.

“Anxiety is one difficult aspect to deal with. Each and every person’s strength is the mindset and we are making sure that we are only talking about things that will lift the players’ spirits up, not things that will leave them dejected,” said Mdaka.

“We can’t say we are expecting this and that [from Yanga], no, we’ll just play our normal game without changing things we usually do on the field.”