Mamelodi Sundowns will kick off their Betway Premiership title defence against Tshwane rivals SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday.
Sundowns will be buoyed by their recent 4-0 win over Mbabane Swallows from Eswatini in the first leg of the CAF Champions League second preliminary round, which took place in Tshwane on Saturday.
This emphatic result ended a two-match winless streak for Sundowns, who had suffered consecutive 1-0 defeats to Stellenbosch FC in the MTN8 marking coach Manqoba Mngqithi’s first defeats as the team’s sole head coach.
However, Masandawana have won the league for the last seven years in a row and history suggests it would be unwise to bet against them defending their crown.
SuperSport, on the other hand, have not played since their elimination from the MTN8 on August 3, following a 3-1 defeat to reigning champions Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinals. Their last competitive game ended in a 1-1 draw against Pirates on May 25, wrapping up the 2023/24 season.
Sundowns are likely to be missing Mothobi Mvala, Divine Lunga, and Kegan Johannes due to injuries, but they face no suspension issues. SuperSport will be without their coach Gavin Hunt, who is serving a suspension, and they are also missing Bradley Grobler and Grant Margeman due to long-term injuries.
Matsatsantsa mentor Hunt is not reading much into the two losses suffered by Sundowns, whom he still believes are firm favourites to win the league.
“They still got the quality, they still got a know-how. People think it’s easy, when you’re winning, you need to keep winning and it’s very difficult to keep winning,” said Hunt.
“They have done it for the last seven years. So, you’ve got to commend them. They bought well, they bought players and they always have a fighting chance.”
Meanwhile, Sundowns’ Mngqithi believes a win would go a long way in silencing the doubters and be the perfect kickstart for his side’s defence of their title, especially against one of the title contenders.
“We always want to make sure that we excel in the games that we play and unfortunately when we don’t win it looks like we have not done enough,” Mngqithi said.
“Maybe a game like this will really help in the morale of the team going into the beginning of the championship [Betway Premiership] and for me that is probably the most important.
“Now that the championship has started, we have no choice but to fight to make sure that we keep the team where [It was last season] and I’m very confident that we’ve got a good enough team to help us to achieve that.”