Sundowns can’t stop us
Ghana’s sole representative in continental competition, Medeama Sporting Club, are confident they will maintain their fine away form when they play South African side Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg of their CAF Confederation Cup play-off at the Lucas ‘Masterpieces’ Moripe Stadium in Pretoria tomorrow.
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Confidence runs deep among the playing body as they eye a mouth-watering bonus of $2,000 each if they overcome Sundowns after two legs to reach the ‘money zone’ of the competition. And after their training session at the Lizzy Sports Complex in Accra yesterday, following their delayed trip to South Africa, Medeama coach, Tom Strand, and Malik Akowuah maintained they would not allow Sundowns to derail their ambition of qualifying for the lucrative stage of the competition.
Despite the issues of visa acquisition, both Strand and team’s talisman Akowuah told the Graphic Sports yesterday they were not sidetracked by the visa issues, adding that the team was going to main their impressive performances away since the competition commenced.
“We had problems with acquiring visas which delayed us but management has fixed it. I am not happy with the fact that we are still in Ghana but I hope we can manage,” Coach Strand said yesterday.
“We feel honoured to play for Ghana. Sundowns is a good team so definitely this will be a tough game, but we want to make a statement that we are a very good side and fortunately we have the whole of Ghana behind us so we will surely win this game.”
Financial incentives of $2,000 put together by the management for each player as winning bonus is serving as a big motivating factor for the playing body not to drop their guard.
Akowuah explained that the management had promised to pay all winning bonuses only after the team qualified to the ‘money zone’ and stressed that his teammates were leaving no stone unturned in their bid to eliminate Sundowns.
“We have not played the match but we have already qualified. I am confident that if we don’t win we will draw and when they come here too we will beat them. We have not been given our winning bonuses yet. Management has promised to pay each player $2000 if we make it to the money zone so we are going all out,” the midfielder said.
The Tarkwa-based side qualified to this stage after beating Al Ahly Shendi of the Sudan 2-0 on aggregate.
Coach Pitso Mosimane’s Sundowns on the other hand were given a second chance after being ousted from the CAF Champions League by AS Vita Club of DR Congo.