Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi is not touching the money of the Dstv Premiership title just yet.
Sundowns are now just two victories away from being crowned league champions for the fourth consecutive time after their 1-0 victory over TS Galaxy heading into the final four games of the season.
But Mngqithi is not focusing on the end result and wants his team to remain in the present.
"Our focus is not on smelling it (the title) or getting it. Our focus is on the process. We played our first game of the last cycle and we are happy that we claimed maximum points," he said.
"The last four games we still expect to get probably a minimum of nine points and that will make us very happy with the cycle. But it will be nice to get 15 points in that cycle but our focus remains on the process rather than what the log table is. To us, our benchmark and legacy will be determined by what we did in these cycles and in the end where did they take us."
Sundowns have now stretched their lead at the top of the table to seven points after AmaZulu had trimmed it down to just one point a week ago. Mngqithi always knew that his team had the insurance of games in hand though.
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"It was important for us to win these catch up matches because we could see the pressure was mounting. We have some important matches coming up in the Champions League. We are almost there in getting the number of points that we are looking for. It was very important that we fight in a game like this. We knew it wasn't going to be easy," he said.
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"Once you get a goal we know their pressing systems upfront because they are not used to that culture, so we had to retain pressure better and try to be a bit more patient so we don't give them a sniff of a chance. At the death they nearly got us from our set piece and they counter attacked and they nearly punished us."
Sundowns next challenge is a mighty one as they go head-to-head with former boss Pitso Mosimane's African champions AL Ahly in the CAF Champions League quarter-final first leg next Saturday in Egypt.
@ZaahierAdams
IOL Sport