DURBAN - Cape Town City and SuperSport United are banking on their experienced campaigners heading into the MTN8 final tomorrow at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban at 7pm. City and Matsatsantsa A Pitori will battle it out for R8-million in the repeat of last year’s final.
Godfrey Mosoetsa, the assistant coach at Matsatsantsa A Pitori; and City’s assistant coach, Vasili Manousakis, addressed the media at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Thursday about their preparations for the final. Both coaches emphasised the importance of the experience heading into the final.
Mosoetsa explained: “No-one can buy experience. We’ve done our homework over the past few years. People just under-estimate the PSL and think you can just unleash youngsters. You need to have players who have played at the highest level.
"We have players like Dean (Furman) and Yeye (Reneilwe Letsholonyane) who has been to Cup finals. The experience that they have gained over the years, it has to be rubbed off onto the younger one’s. We have to blend youth with experience.”
Letsholonyane is challenging for his fourth MTN8 crown. He has been to five MTN8 finals. He won the competition in 2008, 2015 and 2017. He has tasted defeat on two occasions in 2011 and 2016.
Apart from the duo of Letsholonyane and Furman, Matsatsantsa A Pitori boasts the likes of Morgan Gould, Bongani Khumalo, Clayton Daniels and Onismor Bhasera who all have won multiple trophies in their careers.
All eyes will be on them to help United successfuly defend their triumph but City also possess a number of cool heads in their set up in Teko Modise, Ayanda Patosi, Matthew Rusike, Siphelele Mthembu and Tokelo Rantie.
WATCH| @SuperSportFC defender, @MorganGouldZA talks about what has helped the club to reach six cup finals in the last three years. #Matsatsantsa play @CapeTownCityFC for the #MTN8Final trophy this Saturday. #Wafawafa pic.twitter.com/Z5PeqvwPN2
— MTN8 Wafa Wafa! (@MTN8) September 27, 2018
“We are looking at the experienced players to guide the younger ones. We’ve got some experienced players in our team. It is key to get the balance right between them and the youngsters. That’s what makes the young ones function, to have a look over their shoulder to see Modise, Pato (Patosi) or Rantie, if he is available. We have to stay calm. It is really a simple game, we don’t need to complicate things. If everybody does their job, I can’t see the reason why we can’t get over the line,” Manousakis stated.
SuperSport and City will be meeting for the third time in a final in the space of two years. City ran away with Telkom Knockout in 2016 while SuperSport captured the MTN8 last year.