Stellenbosch to begin preparations for MTN8 final

Stellenbosch players will return to training on Wednesday after a few days off to begin preparations for the MTN8 final against Orlando Pirates in Nelspruit next week.

Coach Steve Barker will have all of his squad available, save for centre back Thabo Moloisane, who got a late call up to the South Africa squad for this week’s World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Nigeria in Bloemfontein.

“We had eight games in August, so we gave the players off till Wednesday,” he explained.

“It will allow us to just refresh and then concentrate on working with the team and preparing really well for the final.”

It is the second successive year that Stellenbosch meet Pirates in the MTN8 final, having lost 3-1 to them in Durban last year.

Barker said the build-up to a final within the camp was always exciting.

“I think it's definitely heightened with excitement, energy. I think all players want to be playing in final.

“It will also be nice to play in the final with a full stadium and national anthem being played. So they'll definitely be a big buzz around at the squad.”

The Stellenbosch coach also felt it was a chance to put behind them their poor start to the league season, with only four points from their opening five Betway Premiership matches.

“It’s obviously an opportunity to just rectify maybe a poor league form and get a trophy, and then from there on, start focusing on the league campaign.

“I think when the fixtures came out, we obviously could see that it wasn’t an easy start for us, playing against (Mamelodi) Sundowns, Pirates and (Kaizer) Chiefs.

“We tried to it feel that although difficult, it's also exciting because if you can come out of these five games, perhaps maybe with seven, eight points. Then it does allow you, to get some momentum, go on those unbeaten runs, go on back-to-back wins, but it turned out not to be.

“Losing three of the five games has been a tough start. We need to reflect. I think there's a lot of learnings to be had.

“I just feel that too often it's been a bit of a pattern against all three teams (Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns) where they've started better than us and got on top of us and then got the goal they probably deserved because of the dominance.

“We've just really got to start games a lot more aggressive, a lot more on the front foot,” added Barker.