Perth Glory faces arguably the toughest test of its South Africa tour on Wednesday afternoon (local time) in the form of a clash with Pretoria-based side, SuperSport United.
Perth Glory faces arguably the toughest test of its South Africa tour on Wednesday afternoon (local time) in the form of a clash with Pretoria-based side, SuperSport United.
Previously known as Pretoria City, the club is renowned for the quality of its youth academy and has established itself as a top flight powerhouse in recent years, winning three consecutive ABSA Premiership titles between 2007 and 2010.
United also took out South Africa’s equivalent of the FA Cup, the Nedbank Cup, in 2012 and narrowly failed to retain the trophy last season as they were edged out 1-0 by Kaizer Chiefs in the final.
More recently, the men from the South African capital created a stir that spread well beyond the Republic as they secured a famous 2-0 pre-season friendly victory over a strong Manchester City side featuring the likes of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Joe Hart, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko.
Little wonder then, that Glory skipper Jacob Burns is expecting the club’s third and final tour game to provide the men in purple with a major challenge.
“We’re really looking forward to this SuperSport game,” he said.
“We’ve watched them beat Manchester City in a game that they keep replaying on tv here and judging by that performance, they are likely to be our hardest opponents on this trip.
“At a personal level, I can’t wait to get out there and hopefully stay on the field for as long as possible and it would be nice to come back with a result as well as a good performance against a quality opponent.”
SuperSport will get its new league campaign underway on Saturday by welcoming Free State Stars to its Lucas Moripe Stadium home and with numerous current South African international in its ranks, plus a highly-rated new coach on board in the form of Cavin Johnson, is expected to improve significantly upon last season’s final league placing of sixth.
“Their result against Manchester City shows the kind of quality that we’ll be up against,” said Glory Head Coach Alistair Edwards, “and this game will be a very good test for us at this stage of our pre-season preparations.
“Fortunately, we haven’t picked up any injuries during the trip so far and we’ll be looking to give Steve Pantelidis 20 or 25 minutes against SuperSport as he steps up his recovery from Achilles surgery.”
Burns, meanwhile, is likely to be named in the starting eleven on Wednesday having shaken off his quad niggle and completed 45 minutes of last weekend’s clash with Tuks FC, while new recruit Jamie Maclaren will be hoping to celebrate turning 20 earlier this week by bagging his first goal in Glory colours.
Perth Glory’s 2013 South Africa tour proudly sponsored by Kaboko Mining, Live2Learn and Europcar
Gareth Morgan
