Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker addressed the media ahead of the Club’s CAF Confederation Cup Group C opener against AS Otoho.

Stellenbosch FC’s 2025-26 CAF Confederation Cup Group Stage gets underway on Sunday when they welcome Congolese side AS Otoho to New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Here’s what coach Steve Barker had to say ahead of the match.

“We are excited, coming off a good campaign last season,” Barker said. “As a football club, we’ve always aimed to make our mark and leave a footprint on the continent, so we have to look forward to these occasions.

“We know how difficult it is to get out of the Group Stage and understand the importance of winning our home matches.

“Looking at our opposition, they’ve earned the right to be here in the Group Stage, and it shows that they’re a good team. They’ve got a number of players in their national squad, and some really good footballers in their team.

“We are expecting a difficult match, and there is never an easy match in these games, and we’re aware of that, but we have a good period of preparation during the FIFA break.

“We’ve worked really hard to improve on certain areas where we’ve felt we’ve had to improve, and hence, with good preparation, we’ve got the confidence to get off to a good start in the Group Stage.”

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The match will be played in Limpopo due to the current unavailability of stadia in the Western Cape, but Barker insists his side will see it as an opportunity and privilege to play in front of supporters from other parts of the country.

“It becomes an attitudinal thing towards not playing in the Western Cape,” he said. “I think we got used to it last season, and obviously, there is a challenge with the availability of stadiums, but at the end of the day, we have to look at it and see it as a privilege.

“…We’re not only here representing Stellenbosch and the Western Cape, we’re also representing South Africa on the continent. Wherever we play, we’ve got to play with pride and make not only our home fans proud, but the public of South Africa too.

“We have to see it as an opportunity to showcase our collective and individual abilities. We are familiar with the stadium, having already played here this season. It’s a beautiful pitch and stadium, and I hope we can get a lot of fans to support us.

“It’s difficult for our home fans to be here, but we believe that any South African coming to support us is also a home fan for this match and this competition.”

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Barker also believes the tie comes at a good time after the November international break, revealing that he used the last two weeks as an opportunity to galvanise his squad ahead of the upcoming run of games.

“Prior to the FIFA break, we had played six matches in 18 days and traveled quite a lot, including a trip to Equatorial Guinea and back, so it’s not easy when you’re playing and travelling that much to rectify things,” he said.

“This break was a real blessing for us to be able to get the full squad together and work on the training ground.

“I believe we’ve had a really good two weeks, and hopefully tomorrow, we can put the fruits of our hard work on display and showcase who we are as Stellenbosch Football Club, and the way we’ve always played the game, and get back to being a difficult team to play against…”

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Hailing from the Republic of Congo, Stellies’ opponents are expected to pose a tough physical challenge, but it’s one that the Maroons are prepared to meet head on.

“From our experiences on the continent last season, we’ve seen that there are different types of teams and matches in terms of physicality. I won’t put it to a certain region, because every country does things slightly differently.

“We played against an Angolan team last season, and there were a lot of theatrics and falls, and the North African teams use certain tactics to slow the game down and take the sting out of it, but that’s the great part of playing on the continent.

“You’re playing against teams that you haven’t seen before and that you don’t know too much about. It’s not easy to analyse a team like our opponents tomorrow, but we’ve seen some of their recent qualifying games.

“It’s about concentrating on what we need to do in the game and making sure we’re prepared for anything that comes our way, whether it be the antics or whatever it may be. It’s how you deal with it [that matters], and we’ve got to leave that up to the referee to take control.

“What we can control is our performance and how we react to certain situations, and we can control not losing our composure.”

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The CAF Confederation Cup match between Stellenbosch FC and AS Otohô kicks off at 15h00 on Sunday, 23 November 2025 at New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Tickets are on sale for R40.00 from Webtickets outlets and the match will be broadcast live on SABC 1 and SABC+.