Barker On MTN8 Final Aspirations
Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker is confident in his team’s ability to reach another MTN8 final as they prepare to face Sekhukhune United in the second leg of the semi-final on Saturday.
Stellenbosch holds a significant advantage after a 2-0 victory in the first leg at home.
“We’re looking forward to another exciting challenge,” Barker said. “Having made last year’s final, we’d obviously love to be back in another final.”
Goals from Kazie Enyinnaya and Debin Titus gave Stellenbosch a comfortable lead heading into the second leg. However, Barker remains cautious.
“We started the first leg well and achieved our objective of scoring and not conceding an away goal,” he said. “I thought we were really good at home against Sekhukhune United, but we are aware that the game is only halfway done. Sekhukhune are a very good team—they are showing that in their league form—and they will have the same ambitions of reaching a final.”
Barker emphasized that his team must not become complacent.
“We understand that the challenge will be big for us, but at the same time, we have to reward ourselves for the work we did in the first leg. It’s up to us, and it’s our responsibility to go there for the second leg and ensure that we get ourselves into the final,” he added.
The coach noted that the team must be “braver” away from home. “We can’t go there and expect that we can just defend our two-nil lead. That would be unwise. We’ve got to be positive and take the game to Sekhukhune. We’ve got to try to get that important away goal, which I believe would put us in a really, really strong position.”
If Stellenbosch advances, they could face Orlando Pirates in a rematch of last season’s final. Pirates drew 1-1 with Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg of their semi-final. When asked about the possibility of facing Pirates again, Barker was focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a revenge-type mentality that we need. The important thing is for us to focus on Saturday’s match and not have any thoughts of the final until we have progressed,” he said.
Barker hopes his team’s progression will continue to follow a positive trend. “If you look at the steps of progression, we lost in the quarter-final three years back, then we lost in the semi-finals, and then in the final, so hopefully this time we can go one step further and lift the trophy.”
He concluded by stressing the importance of staying focused on the present. “Importantly though, we still have matches in between with Saturday’s game and league matches, so it would be unwise for us to be thinking too far ahead other than to finish the job that we started well.”
