Mamelodi Sundowns will be spared travel travails when they host lowly Cape Town Spurs in a DStv Premiership match in Pretoria on Wednesday evening.
On Sunday it was apparent that the AFL champs were feeling the fatigue of playing week in, week out when they were held to a goalless draw by a resilient 10-man Pyramids side in their CAF Champions League clash in Pretoria.
The Egyptian outfit frustrated their hosts for long spells and were unfortunate not to snatch a late winner.
Sundowns’ heavy schedule has started to catch up on them and they produced a flat performance against Pyramids.
“There is lots of travelling and games in a short space of time. But, like I always say, heavy is the head that wears the crown,” said coach Rulani Mokwena.
“We carry the crown at the moment, and everyone wants to make sure that they can say they are the first to beat Sundowns.
That’s the responsibility and the burden that we carry.
“It’s my job to make sure that the players are emotionally at the right level to compete,” said Mokwena when asked why the Brazilians’ intensity and emotional drive to beat Pyramids wasn’t at its best.
“I felt that there was no deeprooted desire (to win), and that’s the job of the coach to instil that in the players.
“I first look at myself to say, did I deliver the message well enough in preparing for these games?
“There is no time for pity parties, the universe doesn’t have a budget for that. We can’t be feeling sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to move on and try to understand how we will change that.
“It’s my job to make sure that the players are emotionally at the right level to compete.
“We’ve got two difficult away matches, and then we have to finish the group stages at home in February next year, fortunately.
By that time we will know what we need to do to advance to the knockout stage.
“These games are not easy. I do feel for my players.
“It’s a difficult month for us, there are so many games, and everybody wants to beat us. Everybody feels that we’ve got to play at a certain level, without understanding how difficult it is to keep going.”
After their match against bottom-of-the-log Spurs tomorrow, Sundowns have five matches remaining this year.
Apart from a trip to Cairo, they’ll travel to the Mother City to take on Cape Town City.
Their other games against Moroka Swallows and Polokwane City will be in Pretoria.
IOL Sport