Zwane: Mamelodi Sundowns ready to face the best in FIFA Club World Cup

Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns.

Mamelodi Sundowns captain Themba Zwane has expressed confidence ahead of their opening FIFA Club World Cup match, as the South African Premier Soccer League champions prepare to face Korean side Ulsan HD in Group F at Inter&Co Stadium. The group also features German giants Borussia Dortmund and Brazil’s Fluminense.

“The excitement will be amazing. [Ulsan] really love football, they support the team, so it will obviously be packed. It will be a nice thing for us as players to play on that stage,” Zwane said, as quoted by SABC Sports.

“It’s exciting as a player to go to such a tournament, and obviously you want to be playing at that high level and try to see how far you can go and check how far you have come as a player and try to compete with the best,” he added.

Analysing their tournament opponents, Ulsan and Dortmund, Zwane said: “We’ve been watching them, they are good teams, they have good players.

“We respect them, but we don’t fear them. We are going to go there and play our football, try to win the game and match them in terms of quality and the pace of the game.”

On Fluminense, he said: “It’s going to be an interesting one. They are skillful, they know football and they enjoy football. They are happy whenever they play football, so it’s going to be an exciting game when we meet there.”