Morena, who has struggled with injury in recent weeks, has been the regular right-back at Sundowns ahead of the experienced Ngcongca, while Madisha has been played there recently whenever coach Pitso Mosimane needs someone to fill the position.
Highly rated by Mosimane, Ngcongca joined Sundowns last season after spending nine years in Europe but was nursing an injury at the time. He missed the first nine league matches, as well as Sundowns’ run to the MTN8 final, due to a knee problem.
When he recovered, the former Bafana Bafana captain went on to make 18 appearances in all competitions. This season he has played just nine times and will be hoping to get an opportunity to feature when Sundowns take on National First Division side Cape Town All Stars in the Nedbank Cup last 32 at Athlone Stadium tomorrow (20h00).
“I have got to keep my frustrations and the emotions aside and try my best to help the player who is playing. Thapelo and Madisha are young players, so I have to give them support and that’s how it’s supposed to be in the team. We don’t win individually, we win as a team, so I have to be there for them and sometimes they help me.”
Ngcongca is no stranger to overcoming challenges. During his time at Genk in Belgium, he had to convince the club to give him a new contract even though he was not a regular.
“For me it’s easy to handle the situation. I have been in this situation before when I was at Genk. I had only played four games when I had a one-year contract with an option to extend for three years. So you can imagine when you play in the reserve league. I had to play a few games to convince the coach I deserve a three-year contract. So I know how to handle this situation. I will keep going and hopefully I will get a chance.”