MNGQITHI: I WANT MY TEAM TO SCORE GOALS

Written by: Kamogelo Mogale

Mamelodi Sundowns will lock horns with newly promoted Limpopo based outfit Magesi FC in the Carling Knockout Cup final at the Free State stadium on Saturday. The Brazilians go into this encounter high in morale having scored 11 goals in the tournament thus far leading up to the final while Dikwena tsa metsing have been deemed as giant slayers of the tournament, having eliminated the likes of Orlando Pirates from the tournament on their journey to the final.

Speaking to the media ahead of the final at Chloorkop, Downs coach Manqoba Mngqithi has outlines the prospect of planning around a team like Magesi, as they are relatively new team in the topflight league having only played six matches in the league and three matches in the Carling Knockout Cup tournament.

“Going into the Magesi team, and because I respect every opponent, I am always scared of the opponents that are not favourites to win the match,” Mngqithi said.

“I am always scared of those because they always pull surprises.  So, I try to dig as deep as I can and look at every individual. And to know their team, probably more than I know my team sometimes,” added Mngqithi.

Mngqithi has urged for his side to show their dominance and superiority by scoring more goals, thus respecting the opponents more instead of trying to make them a laughing stock by showboating.

“I think the reason why I became a football coach is because I want to influence a team to try and create a lot of scoring opportunities and score a lot of goals, and I get excited when a game has got a lot of goals, no matter how good the game can be. Sometimes, because I’ve been in football for so many years, where you can dominate the game and look so good, everybody’s excited you were leading 1-0 and in the last minute, the opponent scores. It’s 1-1, and then what?”

“So, for me, goals are the determining factor on the result, and thus we should be targeting to make sure that we play to score as many goals. And if we say we are better than the opponent, it’s because we can score more than them,” Mngqithi concluded.