Kennedy Mweene is likely to be thrust into the limelight again at Mamelodi Sundowns after spending much of the club’s 2015/16 championship-winning season as a fringe player, deputising for first-choice goalkeeper Denis Onyango.
The preferred choice has been suspended for tonight’s CAF Champions League group stage opener away to ES Sefit in Algeria.
Mweene had better not be rusty as coach Pitso Mosimane needs the security of knowing he can count on the Zambian national team skipper, whose sojourn with the Chipolopolo over the years can’t be disregarded.
“Denis did well for himself,” Mweene said. “We were fighting for just one position and the coach can play only one of the three internationals.”
These include Wayne Sandilands, who featured in the earlier rounds of the continental tournament when Onyango was injured.
“The team have been doing well and we won the league, so I had to support my fellow goalkeeper. I think we pushed him most of the time and when he did well it wasn’t just about him, but all of us.”
Sundowns take on Setif, with home-and-away matches to follow against Nigeria’s Enyimba and Egypt’s Zamalek in Group B.
Mweene rates his side’s chances.
“Most of us at Sundowns have the experience of playing on the continent because we get that with our national team,” he said before a match that will set the tone for the Brazilians’ campaign in the rest of the competition.
“We know how the north African teams play. It’s a mini-league this time, so the teams aren’t necessarily relying on the away goals.
“If you take the lead you just have to be careful. If it means defending and earning a 1-1 draw or a goalless draw, then that is what you should do. But when you play at home, you have to win.”
Mweene, who has had only five league games this season, but who has kept three clean sheets, urged his teammates to be mentally strong as they began a journey they hoped would end with silverware.
It’s a pertinent subject as Sundowns have had to travel without seven players due to suspensions for Onyango and Tebogo Langerman, a hernia operation for Mzikayise Mashaba, Soumahoro Bangaly’s flu, and contractual disputes involving captain Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Anthony Laffor and Katlego Mashego, who told the club he would rather be looking for a new team than taking the flight to Algeria.
“It’s a hostile environment that we are going into, you can’t ignore that. We just have to go there and work,” said Mweene.
“When I say work, I mean we need to be mentally strong because we could encounter racism, which is a form of taking our focus away from the game. If it is your first time playing in north Africa you will be shaking.”
Kick-off is at 11.15pm SA time - Saturday Star
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