Sundowns focus on Caf qualifiers

Mamelodi Sundowns ladies coach Jerry Tshabalala is worried that his team might suffer from complacency as the club change its focus to the Caf Women’s Champions League qualifiers.

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The 2022 Cosafa Caf Women’s Championship qualifiers begin this weekend, where six teams from the Southern region in the continent will battle it out for a spot at the continental tournament.

Sundowns Ladies are the current regional and continental champions after winning both competitions last year.

The Pretoria based club has been placed in Group A at the competition, alongside Costa de Sol Ladies of Mozambique and Double Action from Botswana.

In Group B, Zambia’s Green Buffaloes will battle it out with Swaziland’s Young Buffaloes and Olympique do Moroni of Comoros.

Tshabalala and his team have been on a break for a couple of weeks since the start of the Caf Women’s Africa Cup of nations (Wafcon) and only got back to action this past weekend in the Hollywoodbets Super League, where they won 3-1 against the University of Johannesburg.

Even though Banyana Ba Style won the match, Tshabalala was not convinced that his troops were at their best, saying they will have to work hard to get ready for their opening Group A match against Costa do Sol Ladies at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on Sunday.

“The break took a toll on the team. I thought it was going to be useful, but it showed with the lack of match fitness we battled in the second half,” said Tshabalala.

“Complacency might creep in, why am I saying this? Because remember we are the defending champions. I don’t want my players to go out there and boast thinking it’s going to be easy. It is not going to be easy, we are playing Costa do Sol in our first game. We have no idea how they play, we are just going to rely on our strength. Basically it is going to be a challenge for us, but we are ready for the challenge.”

The top two teams in each group will meet in the final to determine who will qualify for the Caf Women’s Champions League.