Highlands Park head into MTN 8 final as underdog

Highlands Park head into Saturday’s MTN 8 Final as the under dogs. Their opponents SuperSport United will be playing in their third consecutive final, however, Highlands Park will have no pressure on them heading in to the final.

Their coach Owen Da Gama says they are happy to be in their first major cup final and are eyeing their first trophy in top flight football.

“Really really thrilled and excited to be in this cup final. For us it has been a memorable journey so far. It has been a fairy tale story for us. I mean doing well in the NFD, smashing records coming into the PSL first season seventh on the log into the top 8 and then again straight into the final. So we are really thrilled just getting into this final for us has gone down into our history books and that’s something that’s very special,” says Da Gama.

Supersport United are the new cup specialists in South African football. They have played in 11 finals in the past 9 years. They face Highlands Park in Saturday’s MTN 8 final, their third final in as many years.

Coach Kaitano Tembo says they’re determined to win back the trophy they failed to successfully defend last year.

“We try and respect whoever we play and I think we always take the same attitude and us being in the final three times in a row. It’s very important but at the same time I think we’ve won it once and lost it last season, so we would want to try and correct that and try winning again and this gives us a perfect opportunity to do that,” says Tembo.