Marumo Gallants interim coach Raymond Mdaka says, though he can’t exactly verify, he is confident that everything is in order for the trip to Pyramids this coming weekend.
Gallants are on the road for the CAF Confederations Cup first leg of their quarter-final tie against the Egyptian side on Sunday.
In their last trip to North Africa last month, two of their officials were detained in a hotel because of a payment dispute, between the club and a hotel owner and returned home 21 days after the intervention of the government.
Mdaka understands people are within their rights to be concerned especially after what happened but his faith is also in the fact that this weekend’s trip is a direct flight.
“Pyramids is next. If that I could not verify but if things are according to plan it means we will be leaving on Thursday,” Mdaka told the media after their goalless draw with SuperSport United on Tuesday night.
“Obviously we are arriving, I don’t know what time, but should be Friday, then Saturday you do your practice then, Sunday we play the game and come back.
“Just for noting, sometimes you don’t fear a lot when you are going for a distance that does not connect. You see it’s one straight [flight] and then we come back. It also gives us a short period, unlike when you go somewhere there are no flights and you have to connect. It takes a lot of time and it is tiring. Let me say so [everything is in place] from where I stand.”
Gallants are going into this game having topped Group A with 12 points, while Pyramids finished second in Group C with 11 points.
The Limpopo-based outfit also go into the encounter on the back of a good run on the domestic front, having collected eight points from a possible 12 to pull themselves out of the relegation zone to 13th on the log with 28 points. Mdaka wants his charges to do the job in the first leg.
“The approach that we use… if you could see on a number of times when we go out and play in CAF we use the character. You see those countries are more physical. SuperSport [United] is playing long balls but they are not that much physical,” he added.
“With those ones they are more physical and they give a lot of space for us to play. We always have some little things to know and see about them and it’s nice when you go out and get a result before you can come back home rather than saying we will get them when we come back.
“We will try to fight as much as we can so that when we come back home the assignment should not be too big.”
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Gallants will face a familiar face at Pyramids, with Bafana Bafana striker Fagrie Lakay being part of their squad.
