UWC may have dominated the run-in towards the final but quickly threw water on the fire of them being the favourites, despite hosting the Heritage Day showpiece.
Their opponents, TUT, have already played at the stadium dubbed the Operation Theatre by the locals and despite bagging three points on that occasion, UWC coach Salie Adams believes the Pretoria side are the favourites.
“Even though we are the hosts, I don’t think we are the favourites, they are because of the so-called star players they have. We are just a team with a bunch of players who have some confidence and enthusiasm.
“What we do have in our favour is that they were not successful previously and they have not mastered the surface. If you look at it realistically, the ground is not a perfect surface to play football on but having adjusted as well as we did is certainly an advantage to us.
“We are unbeaten at home and it is definitely a motivational factor but the players have got it in their minds now that they can take control of the home ground and be the kings of it,” Adams told varsitysportssa.com.
Adams believes UWC are yet to find their best form and that there recent performances have been “enough” to get them through.
“The way we have gone about planning and performing on match days have been enough. We haven’t played great football of late but we came out victorious and that is a driving factor.
“Certain players are yet to fire at about 90 and 95 percent of their ability but to get them to reach that point should not be a problem for us.
“If you don’t concede a goal, you are never going to lose, so that approach will certainly not change. That means that we need to keep it tight at the back to allow the exciting players to go forward and score.
“We need to make sure we keep our composure and compactness. Certain players needs to ensure that and other players needs to ensure we don’t concede and also score, so we need to get the balance right.
“It’s a final and you expect players to be nervous but I think we will be very keen to win,” he added.
