Mamelodi Sundowns are looking for their third consecutive victory in the DStv Premiership when they welcome AmaZulu to Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday afternoon.
The Brazilians come into this fixture after they came from a goal down to secure a 2-1 victory over Golden Arrows in their outing last weekend.
Ustuhu, meanwhile, are looking to return to winning ways after they were forced to endure a 2-1 defeat at Chippa United.
Sundowns are back on top of the DStv Premiership standings with 16 points from eight games, while AmaZulu’s defeat left them in fifth place.
“It becomes a little bit difficult to have a football match, and then it looks a little bit like Sundowns is not playing well but the reality is that Sundowns are the only ones trying to have a football match, because with everything else there’s stoppages, there’s time wasting, there’s fouls, throw-ins and goal kicks that take too long to restart, and then when you have that it then breaks up the momentum of the game,” Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena said.
“It’s not as flowing on the eye as it should be, but those types of games are very difficult whereby only one team is responsible for setting the intensity and tempo of the match.
“The change of the point of attack is an important one, for rotation and for finding the unloaded side, but that needs to happen from different positions.
“It needs to happen maybe from the full back finding the 8 who can find the opposite 8, and then trying to find possibilities where you can get this overload where you’ve got a 2v1 of that fullback who’s waiting for the switch or maybe even the winger who’s waiting for the switch.
“I think football is now moving away from that [style of] possession and switching and horizontal diagonals, it’s more vertical now. It’s more [about] can you build and find possibilities in the next line, without even going too far from the goal.”
When the two teams met in the DStv Premiership last season, Sundowns and AmaZulu secured one win each and three points apiece after the Brazilians won the first leg 1-0 followed by Ustuhu securing a win by the same margin in the return leg.
Rulani Mokwena and Brandon Truter are both expected to have their entire squads fit and ready for the encounter with no fresh injuries or suspensions to report from both camps.
Peter Shalulile has continued to prove himself worthy as the best attacker in the league this campaign, with six goals and claimed one assist in his last six appearances for Sundowns following his winning goal against Golden Arrows in his previous appearance.
Gabadinho Mhango will look to end his three-match goal drought in the league after he failed to find the back of the net against Golden Arrows, Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United, with his last goal coming in their victory over Swallows FC.
Mamelodi Sundowns’ DStv Premiership Form:
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AmaZulu’s DStv Premiership Form:
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