Musa Bilankulu was a member of the Lamontville Golden Arrows side which lifted the MTN 8 trophy in 2009, and the veteran defender-cum-midfielder believes the time has come to rewrite the history books.
It won’t be easy though as they face the reigning PSL champions, Mamelodi Sundowns when they travel to Atteridgeville for the quarterfinal of the MTN 8 (today at 3pm).
But as the old saying goes, if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.
Bilankulu is confident they have what it take to astonish the masses in the football fraternity by beating Masandawana in-front of their vibrant and exuberant supporters.
“We are confident we can beat Sundowns. We know it won’t be easy because we are playing one of the best teams in the continent. We have to bring our A-game. They are the favourites and we are the under-dogs.
"So the pressure is on them. No one is giving us a chance but we know that on the day they are beatable. I was the part of the generation which won it in 2009 and it will be nice to win it again in 2018,” an ambitions Bilankulu said as he anticipates victory over Sundowns.
Abafana Bes’thende demolished Ajax Cape Town 6-0 in the final back in 2009 at Orlando Stadium.
“The most important thing in this competition is to win the first game. Then you get an advantage of playing home and away in the semi finals and then you are in a final. So, we have to win our first game. If we can beat Sundowns we will have every reason to believe that we can go all the way. Winning in 2009 made a huge impact on the club. We earned and gained respect. Players received national team call-ups and other moved to big clubs,” Bilankulu explained.
Sundowns are oozing confidence. They convincingly got the better of Polokwane City away from home on Tuesday after playing out a 1-1 stalemate against Kaizer Chiefs last weekend.
On other hand, Arrows succumbed to a 2-0 loss against Bloemfontein Celtic following their impressive start which saw them beating Maritzburg United 2-0 last weekend in the Kwa-Zulu-Natal derby at Harry Gwala Stadium.
“We have let go of the Celtic result. Our focus has now shifted to the Sundowns game. This is a different ball game, we are playing in a cup game. Anyone can beat anyone. We will give it our best shot,” Bilankulu said.