Mental toughness will be one of the key factors the Lautoka football side will focus on against Ba today.

The Blues meet rivals and neighbors Ba at 3pm in an all-Western affair in the first semi-final of the 2020 Courts IDC tournament.

Speaking to SUNsports, Coach Ravinesh Kumar said playing Ba, they need total focus from the start.

“There are four ways to prepare a team- tactical, technical,physical and the psychological part,” he said.

“We will have to see we don’t give away fouls against a very fast and young Ba side.

“Against Ba, we will have to switch on and take opportunities.

“Mental toughness is very important and we have been doing that during training sessions in counseling the players in a group and individually and we could see how they sustained pressure.

“We need that fighting spirit back to lift the morale of the team to perform to their best.”

Kumar added it’s been a long time coming for Lautoka to reach the semifinals.

“I want to thank the boys for giving their 100 per cent and this time they took the ownership of the team,” he said.

“We played according to plan to reach the semis.

“It was a very tough game on Thursday but we stood out knowing that we believed in each other.”

Edited by Osea Bola

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