Stars plotting for Sundowns

For many, the sensational start by Free State Stars has been a surprise, but not to their mentor, Steve Komphela.

In the obscurity of a small town, Bethlehem, Komphela has been plotting for this revolution for a while now. He is quick to remind those who believe that their form is fluke that this work started a while ago.

Calm and composed, the eloquent Komphela is refusing to get ahead of himself, but for those who haven’t noticed yet, his side has been sitting comfortable inside the top five teams in the country.

Is it perhaps a big coincidence? “We knew what we wanted to do at the beginning of the season, and honestly, we are not surprised to be where we are because we had planned for all of this. We knew exactly what our plans were and we have actually exceeded our goals.”

“If it happens that our plans don’t go well, unfortunately, it will mean that other teams have done better than us.”

The Bethlehem based outfit are currently fifth in the Absa Premiership log – just four points shy of log leaders, Mamelodi Sundowns – ironically their next opponents Wednesday evening.

A win against Sundowns, Komphela knows, will place Stars inside the top three bracket – from there, they can start dreaming.

With the transfer window around the corner, a lot of teams will be looking to strengthen their squads but Stars are unlikely to open their cheque book

“We don’t have deep pockets, and I don’t think we have the luxury to buy new players .In fact, the position where we are gives us an opportunity to focus more’ in-house’, than look elsewhere.

“Any coach would want to have the best players in the world, even the Ferguson’s and Mourinhos, but for us, we have to settle for what we have at the moment.”

The Free State based side have a superb home record and will be looking to maintain it when they take on the title chasers.

Komphela says he is expecting a tough encounter, as they will be looking to bounce back from this past weekend’s loss to Kaizer Chiefs, while Sundowns would like to head into the Christmas break on top of log.

“We are aware that Sundowns is a good team, while on the other hand, we aware that we are doing tremendously well at home, but we are not going to underestimate them.” 

source : psl.co.za