Sundowns out for revenge

Sundowns out for revenge

A rattled Cape Town City square up to bogey team Kaizer Chiefs tonight in a match that kicks off another week of enthralling soccer action and TAB is again turning up the excitement with an R800,000 cash-bonus injection to selected weekend pools

By Mark Gleeson

There’s more great football ahead this week and some TAB soccer customers may be wary of making Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns a banker to win in their home clash with Stellenbosch FC tomorrow evening.

Sundowns had already won the league title when they hosted Stellenbosch towards the end of last season, so they could be excused an off day at that point in the campaign.

But the manner of their 3-0 drubbing by the Winelands club in Pretoria dented their pride and sets up an intriguing clash tomorrow night, when Steve Barker’s team return to the capital just a handful of months after putting Sundowns to the sword.

Stellenbosch are a tricky side and coach Barker insists few DStv Premiership teams like taking them on because of their pressing ability and pace on the counter attack. And even though their best two players from last season - Ashley du Preez and Zitha Kwinika - have moved to Kaizer Chiefs, they look likely to remain a team that can trouble the best this season.

The Pretoria match forms part of a full programme of PSL midweek fixtures with MTN8 quarter-final clashes to follow at the weekend. All the games are included in this week’s TAB soccer pools and even better news is that TAB will add R800,000 to selected pools through the weekend!

Stellenbosch could be tempted to rest players tomorrow with an eye on the MTN clash at home to Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday. They have set success in that knockout competition as a priority over the next months.

Sundowns do not have to worry much about resting players before their weekend MTN8 clash against SuperSport United, given the number of stars in their squad. The latest to join them is Bongani Zungu, who still needs a few weeks to get fit after being largely inactive this year as his career crashed in France.

Kaizer Chiefs have not looked convincing under new coach Arthur Zwane, but have won two games out of four in contrast to Cape Town City’s failure to win even one of their first five matches of the new season.

The two teams clash tonight at the Cape Town Stadium, where Chiefs have won frequently in recent years and turned themselves into City’s bogey team in the process.

City look devoid of confidence right now, but this is a game for them to get their season on track and coach Eric Tinkler is hoping a clash with the famous black-and-gold colours of Chiefs will provide extra motivation for his players.

Tonight and tomorrow also sees the conclusion of the UEFA Champions League preliminaries with the likes of Benfica, PSV Eindhoven and Viktoria Plzen from the Czech Republic expected to win places in the lucrative group phase. The draw for the group stages is on Thursday.