Mamelodi Sundowns could be crowned Premier Soccer League champions with a win over SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday but coach Manqoba Mngqithi does not want to put pressure on his players by viewing the game as a title decider.
Victory for Masandawana will hand them an unassailable 10-point gap on top of the standings and they will be confirmed as champions with three games to spare.
It will be the first time for a team to claim four consecutive PSL titles in the PSL era in what would serve as relief for the Brazilians, who were knocked out of the Caf Champions League by Al Ahly last weekend.
“The focus is not on our next assignment which is playing against SuperSport United and you could see from training that the intensity was good,” Mngqithi told Sundowns’ media.
“Everybody is looking forward to giving this match a fight. We know Sundowns do not want to lose or not to win for two matches in a row. So we have a responsibility to try and come back as quickly as possible.
“So all our attention is trying to make sure that we achieve our desired target in the last four matches and it just happens that SuperSport can decide the championship.
"But the intention is to try and get the number of points we have targeted and as it is now we are short of nine points in the cycle and it will be nice if we can get 12.
“That is basically what we are looking for. We are not putting a lot of pressure on the players to look at this game as a title decider because we still want them to give the same energy even in the next three matches.”
The Tshwane giants go into Wednesday’s match on the backdrop of three successive league wins after also sharing the spoils with Golden Arrows and losing to Kaizer Chiefs in their last five matches.
“For us it is always important to focus on our process and according to our process, this is the second match of the last cycle of five games and we have won the first one,” said Mngqithi.
“It is very important to win every match we play and try to achieve our targets. That is for the legacy of the players to know how they won the league and how much of a fight it was.”
If they beat SuperSport, it will be Masandanwana’s first title in the post-Pitso Mosimane era.