Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena loves to speak openly. The 37-year-old has taken full responsibility for benching Themba Zwane, Aubrey Modiba and Thembinkosi Lorch against Esperance in the CAF Champions League.
MAMELODI SUNDOWNS LOSE TO ESPERANCE IN THE CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Friday night is an evening to forget for Kabo Yellow supporters. The 2016 CAF Champions League winners failed in another dream to win the second star. Tunisia’s Esperance completed a 2-0 aggregate win after a 1-0 win in the semifinal second leg last night. Sundowns completely dominated the game in both boxes, missed a string of chances before Esperance’s Read Bouchniba smashed home a killer winner on 57 minutes.
Esperance coach Miguel Cardoso described the win as one of the best of his career.
“It was rather difficult to prepare this game, probably the most difficult game I ever played, because Sundowns is an unbelievable team,” Cardoso said via iDiskiTimes.
“To compete in the right way, we had to use a tactical approach that would allow us to close as much as possible the spaces, the individual quality, the tactical variance that we could see on the pitch.
“Yesterday, I had a meeting a 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we almost had no time to practice between the two games, with the sleep and we didn’t know if someone was watching our training, so we didn’t make any big tactical work.
“But we had a couple of meetings scheduled, and we had a meeting at 2 o’clock and I cancelled it. I was not ready to tell the players how we should start the game – I had to sit with some of them and discuss,” Cardoso concluded.
RULANI MOKWENA ON HIS SELECTIONS
Speaking to the media after the match, Sundowns coach Mokwena said he made a mistake to drop Zwane, Modiba and Lorch to the bench.
“I speak [to the players], one of the most important things about what I’ve learnt from some of the many discussions and things that I read is how important communication is and I speak to the players a lot,” said Mokwena via Goal.
“So I did speak to Lorch, I spoke to Mshishi, but I also spoke to Bongani Zungu because he also has just come back.
“I spoke to Tashreeq because Tash played well and scored a goal last game but he’s been struggling with a stomach bug. I spoke to Thapelo Morena, who I thought even when he came on was very good today, he was good in the last game as well.
the Sundowns coach continued: “Modiba also has been playing well for us, so I had to speak to him. But I speak to them, I talk as much as I possibly can, I explain the reasons why – they don’t always have to agree with the reasons but they’ve got to respect the reasons because I’m the coach and I had to make the decisions.
“And sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong.
“Unfortunately in this game of football, it’s the results that determine if you’re right or wrong and in this moment because we lost and we’re out of the Champions League I was wrong and I put up my hand I say ‘I was wrong and therefore I take the full responsibility for it’” the Sundowns tactician concluded.