Moorosi Tsiane
MATLAMA assistant coach Mosito Matela is confident that his side can rise to the occasion and upset Angolan champions Petro de Luanda when the two sides meet on Sunday for the return leg of the CAF Champions’ League in Luanda.
Matlama will have to score more than twice for no response to overturn the 2-0 deficit they suffered in the first leg played a fortnight ago at Setsoto Stadium.
Tse Putsoa jets to the Angolan capital today and will acclimatise with the conditions on Friday and Saturday.
Matlama, who return to continental football after an eight-year absence, couldn’t handle their opponents’ pace in the first leg but Matela says they are ready and know what to expect.
“Our level of fitness is now where we wanted it to be after the last weekend Alliance Winter Challenge games and the boys are looking forward for the challenge,” Matela said.
“We have also been training twice daily to cover for the two days that we will be travelling. It is not yet over as we are faced with a massive task of winning at all costs and I believe that we can do it.”
Commenting on Matlama’s poor showing in the Alliance Winter Challenge, Matela said they were never intent on winning the tournament but rather to prepare their team.
“Of course, it would have been good to win but our focus is on this coming CAF match and we were using the Alliance tournament as part of our preparations.
“It is still off season and we didn’t have adequate preparations before the CAF matches started, so we needed to use every chance we got to prepare.
“This is why we tried different combinations that we wanted to use in the second leg match and I we are happy with what we have seen.
“Our coach is still new and only had a few weeks to work with the team before the CAF matches. I know that supporters are unhappy but as a technical team, we know what we were looking for and we have managed to rectify the mistakes we made in the first leg,” Matela said.
