Ugandan international and Sundowns goal minder Denis Onyango says he keeps his fingers tightly crossed for a second Caf Champions League star against Pyramids FC in Cairo this weekend. Photo: Sipho Siso

news.reporter1959@gmail.com

As Mamelodi Sundowns moves closer to gaining a second star of the Caf
Champions League, Ugandan international goalminder Denis Onyango and his defence kingpin Mothobi Mvala are keeping their fingers tightly crossed for a second
star.

The pair, speaking as the current crop of players in the star-studded Sundowns team ahead of the crucial and champions deciding game of the second leg of the final during the club’s partnership announcement with Carling Black Label beer brand for
the upcoming Fifa Club World Cup in the United State of America, urged teammates to keep their cool against the hostile Egyptian fans and play their normal game.

“It’s not just lasers that they will be faced with but numerous other intimidation tactics from the hostile crowd,” said Onyango, who is already three seasons into his second decade with Masandawana and still going strong.

“It’s football and anything can happen but what we need is to keep our composure amid provocation and do what we know best – playing our own brand of football and not be distracted by flimsy side issues,” the Ugandan international cautioned.

Onyango said the Sundowns team has all the material its needs to turn the table upside down against Pyramids FC and come out victorious. “We have been yearning for this second star for close to a decade now and this time it’s our turn, it’s the Sundowns turn.”

Onyango’s stalwart central defender and Bafana Bafana star who once represented the U23 team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Mothobi Mvala, expressed confidence in the Masandawana team, saying whoever will be the best team in the field of play on the day will take the trophy and ‘I pray that it will be Sundowns as we have been trying to get this elusive second star for almost a decade now’.

On the Fifa Club World Cup front, Mvala, the man that hails from Welkom in the Free State, said they are going there to make a mark and ensure they are noticed. “We’re going there to also mix and rub shoulders with the best the world has to offer to learn a thing or two to continue to improve our game from strength to strength.”

Another Sundowns legend Sibusiso Vilakazi also urged the boys to go and learn a trick or two from the top clubs in the world and use those lessons to up their game. “If the opportunity avails itself to lift the trophy – so, be it, as that will be a cherry on top to make the world sit and realise that African football, and south African football in particular, has arrived and is coming of age,” said Vilakazi, who’s fondly known by his totem name of ‘Mphephethwa’.

Sundowns defence kingpin Mothobi Mvala says he crosses his fingers for Masandawana side to come out tops in Cairo and attain the second Caf Champions League star. Photo: Sipho Siso