26 Feb 2015

Township Rollers have vowed to reverse the 2-1 score line when they meet Kaizer Chiefs in a CAF championship game billed for the National Stadium tomorrow (Saturday 28).

Township Rollers captain, Sekhana Koko told the media that this would be a do or die encounter. He said they would be forced to bring results out of the game, or else they will booted out of the competition.

He, however, said now that they had played against Chiefs in the first leg, they knew what to expect from them. “I pray that they start with the same line up, with the players we want to play against,” he said.

According to Koko, moral was high in camp and every player was looking forward to play in the second leg, adding that the 2-1 score line had motivated  given that when they left for South Africa no one thought they would give Amakhosi a tough game.

Rollers coach, Madinda Ndlovu, said his camp was injury free and that all players were available for selection.  He said the technical team was aware what the game meant to Rollers family and the nation at large.

“As for our preparations, we have covered quite a lot of ground, we have tried to work on our short comings, we have tried to look at the strongest aspect of the opponent and we have also worked on how we are going to explore those short comings,” he said.

Ndlovu said in the first leg, they tried to match and make a mark out of the game, but after playing against them, the boys realised that they are just players like them, therefore that alone gave confidence to the players.

For Rollers to proceed to the next leg they would have to beat Chiefs 1-0 the task that is not easy since Chiefs would also be determined to proceed to the next round. Information from South Africa suggests that, Chiefs did not want to leave anything to chance, given that Rollers had shown them little respect in their backyard.

However, Bernard Parker was quoted by his team’s official website saying; “we believe that as a team we can get a positive result. At the last game when they settled their initial nervousness, they thought they could win it and it gave them confidence. However, we are an experienced team and we definitely want to advance to the next round. We learnt a lot from last year’s Champions League journey. We will be ready come Saturday".

Meanwhile, today (February 27) in Lobatse, BDF X1 would tussle it out with Young African, in a CAF Confederation Cup. In the first leg, Matebele lost two-nil courtesy of Amisisi Tambwe. The Yanga arrived in Gaborone on Wednesday, hoping to finish what they had started in their home game.

BDF XI vice chairman, Cristopher Mbaakanyi said his team was ready for the encounter. He however said although the whole squad was available for selection, Bonolo Phudududu and Mosha Gaolaole had sustained minor injuries.

Mbaakanyi said he was confident that his side would reverse the deficit and go beyond this stage.  “Our players are looking forward for the game and our wish is to do wonders this evening, despite dealing with a difficult opponent outside the field, we had booked accommodation for them but turned it down,” said the disappointed Mbaakanyi.

He said their visitors did not even want police ENDS