Durban — A Mamelodi Sundowns outfit with a reconfigured technical team will travel to Maritzburg United as the two sides meet at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Tuesday at 7.30pm.
The Brazilians are coming off an embarrassing MTN8 cup exit at the hands of Orlando Pirates, leading to the club feeling the need to reconstruct the roles of the three coaches in the technical team.
"Rulani Mokwena will take over the responsibility of Head Coach at Mamelodi Sundowns, Steve Komphela will be promoted to become First Team Coach and Manqoba Mngqithi will be the Senior Coach," read the club's statement on Monday afternoon.
Masandawana have been jittery since the beginning of the 2022 campaign, producing poor performances which were initiated by the early loss TS Galaxy in the league.
Maritzburg, themselves, under different management this season, still harbour fond memories of this fixture in the previous campaign when they handed Sundowns just their second defeat of three in the entire season.
Sundowns defender Grant Kekana expects a tough encounter away in Pietermaritzburg but revealed that he and his teammates are looking forward to turning all of their focus to league matters.
"We're looking to bounce back and try to get over the loss we suffered against Orlando Pirates and hopefully get a positive result," he said
"Obviously we're playing Maritzburg away from home so we know it will be a tough encounter, they are in the relegation zone so they'll want a result out of it as well, it's always tough going to Maritzburg but it's an encounter we'll be prepared for."
Meanwhile, Royal AM are looking to end their terrible run of four games without a victory against Golden Arrows, a run of results that has left them in 10th place in the league.
Thwihli Thwahla co-coach Khabo Zondo, who was recently rumoured to be on his way out of the club, seems comfortable in his seat and spoke ahead of what is expected to be an entertaining match.
The experienced mentor revealed that he and his team are well aware of the kind of danger Abafana Bes'thende possess and will look to combat that when the two sides meet at the Chatsworth stadium at 5pm on Tuesday.
"We're coming up against a side that has a lot of youngsters with pace and we're also coming off the back of a not so good result," he said.
"We've lost a lot of matches recently which doesn't look good for us but the courage is there and the players are ready even though we're missing some key players."
IOL Sport