Platinum Stars will use the next two weeks to focus on their MultiChoiceDiski Challenge quarterfinal match against SuperSport United, coach Willem Jackson said.
The Rustenburg-based side claimed the third spot in Group B, to set up a clash with United, who finished second in Group A. They will play the first quarterfinal encounter at the Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu, Durban on January 31.
“Our boys have been active, some of them played over the weekend. We have teams in the third and fourth divisions (ABC Motsepe League and Castle League), they’ve been playing there. We’ve also organised some friendlies, the players are busy with the preparations, it’s beengoing well.”
“Since Monday the full squad has been together, preparing for the next week match against SuperSport. Basically from this week the focus will be on the Diski Challenge, the players are playing in the different leagues, we are now going to get them together and put our focus on the quarterfinal match,” said Jackson.
Stars will face a SuperSport side that won four of their seven group stage matches and scored 10 goals. Their coach admits that the match brings a different test as the focus was on their group rivals in the previous matches.
“We didn’t know were going to play SuperSport until the last games. It was difficult because we were always preparing for the teams we were playing against in our group, SuperSport were in another group. When we finished the group stage, we then heard we were going to play them.
“We watched a couple of their matches, they’ve got some PSL players. But the main focus is for our boys to go and enjoy, there’s no pressure on any player. We don’t put any player under pressure, they must just go out and enjoy, that is the main purpose of football – they need to enjoy the game,” continued the former Orlando Pirates and BafanaBafana defender.
Dikwena, as Stars are affectionately known, won three matches in the group stage and found the back of the net nine times. Jackson and his technical team will again put their trust on the youngsters to do well in the knockout round.
“We still have the same squad there’s no new players. We’ll probably just rope in one goalkeeper but there are no major changes, we still have our regular players.”
NO PRESSURE
It took Stars four matches to register their first win of the competition. Theywillhave to hit the ground running in the knockout round as there will be no time to recover.
“We have two weeks to prepare for the game,SuperSport will be our main focus. That’s the match we are worried about not the next one after them. From Monday we’ve been focusing on SuperSport, thatis a message in itself, to tell the players we want to win this game. But we are not going out to tell them ‘listen you’re under pressure to go and win this game.’
“We are just telling them we are preparing for SuperSport, we are playing to score goals and defend. You need to get it into the mind of these youngsters, instead of telling them ‘you are under pressure, you need to go and win this game’ – if you do that, it comes by itself, they don’t want to listen.” Jackson explained.
“When they go out on the pitch they know what’s expected from them. But we are not putting them under any pressure by saying they must win and go to the next round. We are telling them to go and enjoy the game,” he concluded.
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