Tede, Relatives face crunch League battle in Orlando

Action-packed SAB League fixtures in the Buffalo City region are on the cards for this weekend, with one of the highly anticipated encounters seeing the current log leaders, Tede United Brothers, travelling to play Relatives at Orlando Stadium in Mdantsane on Sunday.

Tede will go into this game in high spirits, as they are yet to drop any points this season in the league — although they recorded a 3-1 loss to the ABC Motsepe League high-flying Amavarara in the Nedbank Cup provincial finals.

Second-placed Relatives last met Tede during the Nedbank preliminary round games, and the Quzini-based outfit were victorious.

Relatives chair Sphatho Handi said this weekend’s fixtures were very interesting.

“Tede are now occupying position one on the log and we are in position two, so this game will see both teams’ strengths being tested, to see who’s stronger.

“On our side, we are fully prepared and the boys are highly motivated, but our focus is Saturday’s match against Rising Stars.”

Handi emphasised the importance of being focused as a team.

He said they were going to respect all opponents they were set to face, rather than keeping an eye only on Tede.

“Their coach [Chippa Njedu] is an excellent tactician who makes use of every mistake we commit to punish us. We must, therefore, play with a huge level of discipline.

“There is just no room for unnecessary mistakes, because this is a game that will count a lot in the race for the championship going forward,” Handi said.

Njedu said they were prepared to play both games scheduled for this weekend. On Saturday they face Peace Makers before their much-anticipated game against the Mdantsane-based Relatives.

‘‘What makes our team different from the others is that we do not have what we call special games. We treat all our opponents equally,” Njedu said.

Although Tede feel the pressure to maintain their points lead, the “mindset we have built as a team is to treat every game as a final, because a team can lose with a margin of six goals in previous encounters, but now that they are playing against leading Tede, they will make sure they do well in their games,” he said.

Their coach [Chippa Njedu] is an excellent tactician who makes use of every mistake we commit to punish us. We must, therefore, play with a huge level of discipline