Galaxy look to break African Stars' 'low-block'
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday August 23, 2024 09:03
Galaxy trail 1-0 going into the return leg to be played at the National Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The winner will move closer to the group stages of the Champions League with a two-legged second-round fixture to come. Last Saturday, Ramoreboli's side was beaten by an early goal in a tie that had a handful of chances. African Stars took the lead inside the first five minutes and held on to protect the goal for the entire match. The local champions dominated the Namibian side but struggled in the final third and Ramoreboli has since said he knows what to expect from his weekend's opponents. 'I can tell you now they have one goal going into the next match; they will not change how they play.
They are still going to play with that low block, and that is how they play most of the time,' Ramoreboli said. So it simply says we need to be ready for counter-attacks, and we need to be ready again for that low block,' he said after the first leg loss. He, however, said it is more of his team's own doing than a brilliant performance from the opposition as his side eyes progression into the second round. 'We want to progress to the second phase and for us to progress, it means we need to give more than what we have given and try to correct mistakes and aspects that led us to lose the match. Again, we need to understand that we are playing a very structured team; they believe in that low block, and they master it.
So we need to find a way of saying how are we going to come back and do our best. This is football and the biggest mistake we could make is to doubt ourselves,' said Ramoreboli. But Galaxy are masters of comebacks. The Galaxy Stars managed one of the team's greatest comebacks in 2021 against Tanzanian giants, Simba SC, and Ramoreboli would be hoping that his troops would leave it all in the field once more. African Stars' head coach, Ronnie Kanalelo, admitted that his side does not have the quality that Galaxy possesses and hinted his side would once again employ a defensive approach ahead of the second leg. 'They are a better side than us; they are a better quality, and I should agree to that. For us, we try to play as a unit; we know our own limitations, and we work with what we have. We know how Galaxy plays; they try to stretch the wings, they try to play short passes in the centre of the pitch, and they switch the play on the sides.
That is where their threat comes from, and that is why you need to keep a low block because they consistently want to play behind your defence line,' Kanalelo said. Kick-off is 4pm. On Sunday afternoon, Orapa United would hope an away goal would come in handy as they host Foresters FC of Mauritius in the second leg of the CAF Confederations Cup preliminary. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw in Mauritius last weekend, and the Ostriches will hope to finish the job at the National Stadium in a 4pm kick-off time.