Sundowns to bring ‘Shoe Shine & Piano’ at FIFA Club World Cup

by Helder Ribiero

Tuesday Jun 17, 2025. 13:00

While the likes of Al Ahly and ES Tunis have already featured at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup during matchday one, South African powerhouse Mamelodi Sundowns will now turn their attention to Ulsan HD in their opening Group F fixture on Wednesday.

Kick-off is at 00:00 CAT

As the first Southern African team to qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup, Sundowns will go again when they take on the South Korean club at the Inter & Co Stadium this week.

Given the competition’s new format, Ulsan qualified for the showpiece as a top ranked representative (four slots) from the Asian Football Confederation while Downs formed part of the highest performing clubs (four slots) from the African continent.

Speaking ahead of the tie, Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso believes that his side can make it to their next phase of the tournament.

“I don’t believe there is one single team before the competition that doesn’t believe they can make the next stage,” Cardoso said.

“Obviously for us it would be an incredible achievement to go through the group stage but before we achieve that we need to get points so we need to play a very complete match tomorrow.”

Elsehwere, Ulsan HD defender Kim Young-gwon expressed that his side intends on playing beyond their Group F assignments.

“It’s an honour to be here because the best clubs in the world are competing to determine the champion,” Young-gwon said.

“Our goal for this tournament is to advance from the group stage.”