Tuks fired up for Diski Challenge final

University of Pretoria's coach Sly Mosala says his team is looking forward to the MultiChoice Diski Challenge final match against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.

The encounter will take place at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto. Kickoff is at 12pm.

“Listen, I’m trying to prepare. I’m preparing myself mentally because I’m only starting to prepare the team tomorrow (Wednesday)," the laughing Mosala said.

“So I’ve been preparing myself only over how am I going to prepare the team.

“But anyway listen, remember we are playing in the Nedbank Cup so the players are involved there. But we’ve been preparing a little bit from last week of which we believe it’s been going well."

The coach then gave more details on how the team has been preparing for the big clash.

“We played against a team from Mozambique, so we are alright. We are playing another friendly game tomorrow (Wednesday), that will obviously give us a direction of where we are and what we need to do going to Saturday’s game.

“But I think everything is good so far, we waiting for Mpho Maruping to be cleared, hopefully he will be ready to play by Thursday and then we will take it from there. But so far everything has been good," he revealed to supersport.com.

The club's skipper Maruping sustained an injury from a bad tackle in the first half of their semifinals match against SuperSport United. The coach confirmed that the player is the only doubt ahead of the final.

“He is the only injured player, and also Siphelele Luthuli is not around he’s with the national team, the Under-20. Nonetheless we looking good”

“I think I will bring one player in the team to replace him, Tojotiana Andriamialy from Madagascar. He played against Swallows, he was top, he’s a 16 year old. He’s available, he’s back training with us from Wednesday," the ecstatic coach said.

'EVERYONE WANTS TO PLAY'

Mosala also revealed how the mood is among the players with most of them preparing for their biggest match of their budding careers.

“I can tell you one thing, everyone wants to play this. If it wasn’t because of the PSL game that we play on the weekend, we were going to struggle to pick the team, you understand. Because people want to play in this competition, suddenly people are enjoying it. I don’t know what’s happening, even the ones that are older, they want to play. But this is meant for laaties (youngsters) man, you see.”

The senior team's joint-coach mentioned that there won't be any major changes on his team for Saturday.

“It will depend with the suspensions of the first team again, what’s coming out of Wednesday’s game. Hopefully everyone will be fit and ready to play against Aces, and then the younger ones can come on play MDC on the weekend.

“But we not going to change much, there will be one or two changes, but the players that have been playing will be there. With the laaties that I’ve been using from the beginning," he continued.

Mosala then talked about the changes that were caused by the Amajita's call, saying; “I don’t know about Sundowns whether they are getting their players back from the national team.”

He immediately got excited after we confirm ed to him that their opponents will be eithout those places, “Yes I wanted to find out that information, so that means we will be equal now. Dog will eat dog,” he laughed.

CONFIDENCE

Denver Mukamba has been on fire for the first since being recalled after scoring a brace in the quarterfinals. After being asked if he will be tempted to bring him, Mosala revealed that the midfielder won't play in the final.

“Let me tell you one thing, I don’t think I will have him. One thing that I can say to you, you know this MDC helped him to be what he is now in the first team. We must thank the MDC. So, I don’t think I will have him. The man is firing for the first team."

Mukamba has scored twice in two matches since being recalled.

The coach spoke with confidence when he commented on the weekend's against Sundowns.

“Now we are in the final, anything can happen. We want to give ourselves a chance to go to Netherlands, they (Sundowns) want to give themselves a chance to go to Netherlands. It’s how we are going to respond when the game develops, I’m hoping that we will be on our toes and then go with the changes of the game throughout.

“But we want to go there and create enough chances to win the game. And give ourselves a chance to go there. It’s there, why must we back off? We worked hard to be where we are, so I think if the chance is there, let’s see. If it’s there for a taking, let’s take it, get ourselves a free trip to Netherlands to go and get exposure. And then experience different football life," he emphasised.

Mosala also explained what it will mean in his personal capacity to be the first coach to win the Diski Challenge crown.

“Like I just said; to me and to the rest players or the rest of the team - the club as a whole. It will be a bonus, the free trip is a exposure for the team. It’s exposure for the technical team and the players. That is going to be a top experience again to go and play against some of those top teams in Netherlands," he concluded.