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Soccer fans in for a treat as full round of DSTV Premiership matches scheduled for this weekend

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DSTV Premiership clubs are bracing themselves for a taxing two month period leading up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

All football leagues across the world will be suspended during this year’s World Cup which will be played between November and December for the very first time.

There’s a full round of Premier Soccer League fixtures this weekend starting with the Pretoria derby between SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns taking place this evening.

All the teams return to action, following the staging of the MTN-8 quarter final fixtures last weekend.

This was an opportunity for teams languishing in the bottom half of the log to get their house in order.

DSTV Premiership defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns will go top of the log if they overcome their neighbours on Friday.

But Sundowns coach Manqoba Mgqithi has warned about the dangers of peaking too soon in the season.

“Knowing the number of matches that we are expected to play within the next two months now, it is also very important to work properly to make sure that you don’t burn out quickly, you are ready to play till the last match. That requires a lot when you consider that we are playing two to three matches every week and it’s going to be even more difficult for many teams to cope with that,” says Mgqithi.

SuperSport who was knocked out of the MTN 8 competition by the Brazilians a few days ago will want to make amends in the league encounter.

United are third from the bottom after one of their worst starts to the season with just a single win from five matches.

“I’m a coach that likes to play every two, three days, I think it’s important. I think we’ve got Sunday and Friday the next game is on us again training has been low key because we’ve played lot of games in the last two weeks with travelling and playing. Not that the travel is far but you still in and out up and down but yah we looking forwar. They can change players, we can’t really change too much because we don’t really have enough but they can certainly change a lot playing wise. But for us it’s going to be pretty much try, maybe do something a little bit different which we going to do and that’s what we can do,” says SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt.

But for some of the teams, who had a brilliant start to the season like AmaZulu, Royal AM and TS Galaxy, the aim is to maintain consistency ahead of the World Cup enforced break. TS Galaxy, who are in the top five on the log, host Cape Town City on Saturday evening.

“Yes so far I think we did a good job but of course it’s early so we have to try to hold on, try to control our mind and we have to be focused every day and try our best and stay at this kind of place. Cape Town City is a really tough and hard team to play against,” says TS Galaxy coach Sead Ramovic.

On the other hand, Chippa United will want to move away from the danger zone before it’s too late. The Chilli Boys,  who are second from the bottom, will be away to Golden Arrows on Saturday,.

“We’ve had a ten day break obviously I think a little bit of rest for the boys who have played most of the matches but for most part I think we’ve had the opportunity to work on the few issues that we’ve been having especially in attack. So we’ve been working a lot on the creative side of things and try obviously to create chances and converting those chances becomes important because I think defensively we’ve had a good display over the past couple matches,” says Chippa United coach Daine Klate.

In the two fixtures on Sunday, log leaders, Orlando Pirates will travel to Maritzburg United for their match at the Harry Gwala Stadium while Marumo Gallants will welcome Moroka Swallows to the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.

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