Benni McCarthy and his Cape Town City side have an “apple to peel” when they take on SuperSport United in the MTN8 final on September 29.
Last season, the teams contested the decider in Durban and after leading, City eventually went down 4-2 on penalties following a 1-1 draw.
City reached the final again thanks to a shootout victory of their own after their two-legged semifinal with Mamelodi Sundowns on Sunday.
Now Benni has his eyes set on his first trophy as a coach.
He says: “It was a tough one, I think the boys gave it their all. We were up against a resilient and strong Sundowns team.
“They probably had the better chances to kill it off, but when we went 1-0 down I said to the boys ‘we have nothing to lose, we keep on playing, we’ve been in these situations [before] and we can overturn it’.
“We were just unfortunate not to get back into it, a tremendous run by Craig Martin and an [equally] tremendous save from Denis [Onyango] to prevent us from going 1-1. Then it’s a completely different game, justice in the end.
“Penalty shootouts are a lottery, from last season I know the headache of losing in the final. Now it’s the repeat of last year’s final. We’ve got an apple to peel.”
And new hero, goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburgh, who saved two spot-kicks, believes there can only be one result this time around.
The Dutchman says: “It can only mean one thing, we’re gonna win this cup.
“We’re a young club, we need to create history. This is an amazing opportunity to create history so let’s go for it.”