12 Sep 2024

 Mining town teams, Jwaneng Galaxy an Orapa United will this weekend engage in the second preliminary rounds of CAF competitions. Galaxy will battle Orlando Pirates in the CAF Champions League at the National stadium on Saturday, while the Ostriches will face Zimbabwean side, Dynamos at the Obed Itani Chulume Stadium in Francistown on Sunday.

Jwaneng Galaxy made it to the second preliminary round after eliminating African Stars of Namibia on penalties, while Orapa United proceeded to this stage via a 3-1 aggregate win over Foresters FC of the Seychelles.

In an interview, Galaxy spokesperson, Tankiso Morake said they were aware that in Pirates, they faced a mammoth task, but assured that they were ready for war.

“Remember that we eliminated them through penalties at this stage last season, so they come here as a wounded buffalo seeking revenge, but we are ready to take the fight to them,” he said.

Morake said there was no doubt that Pirates had a rich history in the CAF competitions and that they were one of the biggest teams in Africa with a large support base, but that Galaxy were spurred by their vision to be one of the best teams in the continent.

“We can only get known in the continent through playing other big teams such as Pirates, and at the moment we are living our dream as we have been playing big teams in these competitions, so this is also part of our mission,” he said.

Galaxy contributed seven players to the national team that played Mauritania and Egypt recently, which raises concerns of fatigue, but Morake said they were confident that Galaxy could handle Pirates even without the national team players.

“They nevertheless joined camp on Wednesday and have been training with the rest of the team, ready for the battle,” he said. He also indicated that they were injury free except for Namibian international, Dynamo Fredericks and Omaatla Kebatho, both about 90 per cent fit after long term injuries.

Galaxy will be facing Pirates for the fifth time in its 10 years of existence. The two first faced each other during the 2021 CAF Confederations cup, with Pirates getting the better of Galaxy, beating the 4-0 on aggregate.

They met again in the last edition of the CAF Champions league second preliminary round where they played to a one-all draw on aggregate, with Galaxy prevailing 5-4 on penalties.

In Francistown, Orapa United will entertain DeMbare, as Dynamos are fondly called, in the Confederations cup.

Media and communications officer for the Ostriches, Emanuel Seiphetlho is equally confident of victory. 

“This is our third attempt in the CAF competitions and both times we failed to make it to the group stages, so we are looking forward to making it the first time,” he said.

Seiphetlho indicated that they had four players doing duty for their national teams last week, which he said gave them confidence that they would boost the performance of the team

“National teams training is usually more intense, so we are confident that they came back in a better shape,” he said.

Midfielder, Rickie Ratlhogo, defensive midfielder, Koketso Majafi and attacking midfielder, Gape Thibedi did duty for the Zebras while defender, Ivan Kamberuka did duty for the Namibian national team.

With no CAF accredited stadium in Zimbabwe, Dynamos will return to Francistown in two weeks’ time to ‘host’ Orapa for the return leg, but Seiphetlho said the advantage would be slight as Francistown was only a few hours by road from Zimbabwe, and already home to many Zimbabwean citizens who might give DeMbare a boost. Both games start at 4pm. Ends