All roads lead to Athlone Stadium this Saturday (2 September), where the Stellenbosch Football Club will be in action in the MTN8 semi-final against Orlando Pirates.
“We are looking forward to the semi-final because it is a big occasion for us as a football club to be in a competition like the MTN8, playing in an away semi-final against Orlando Pirates,” said coach Steve Barker.
“There is a lot of excitement and anticipation around the fixture, and also a lot of positivity around the game. The players are desperate to be in a final and they have the opportunity to progress to the final on Saturday.”
He said the two legs will give the club an opportunity to play in the final, which was one of their objectives for the 2023-’24 season.
“We played against Orlando Pirates and Supersport United on our way to the semi-final of the MTN8, and were victorious, but the past weekend we lost against SuperSport in our PSL match.
“Both teams are very good and we’ll take all the positives of the initial games against them into this weekend’s game. To beat both teams twice in a short space of time is never easy, but we have to have the belief and the trust that we can achieve it.
“It is a massive opportunity to come up against Orlando Pirates again in Cape Town, so hopefully we can replicate the same type of performance we had in the first match and even be better and stronger, and put ourselves in a stronger position going into the second leg.”
Stellenbosch won’t be in action at their traditional home, the Danie Craven Stadium, but rather at Athlone Stadium, where they enjoyed a good run in the Nedbank Cup last year.
“We’ve played enough matches at Athlone Stadium also to see it as our home in Cape Town,” Barker pointed out. “It is in the heart of Athlone and we are expecting our supporters from Stellenbosch to travel there, as will other soccer lovers from the Western Cape who will come and support a Cape team.
“We had a good run at the stadium last year, beating Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns there.
“The stadium is a happy hunting ground for us and we are really looking forward to the stadium to be really full and packed, and to entertaining the crowd and making the people of the Western Cape proud of us.”
