“The Players Gave a Very Good Account of Themselves” – Coach Rulani Mokwena.

Mamelodi Sundowns began their CAF Champions League race with a 2-2 draw against AS Maniema Union at Stade des Martyrs in Congo on Sunday afternoon. A brace from Themba Zwane was enough to ensure that the visitors bagged two away goals in their first leg of the second preliminary round fixture.

Masandawana Co-Coach Rulani Mokwena admitted that the recent international break poked holes in the team’s performance and they could have performed better. He said, “It’s always difficult after the FIFA break to be able to come back, particularly because there isn’t a lot of training time, you [are] missing a couple of players with regards to preparations, there’s also players coming back from different playing concepts and spaces. [However], we showed resilience and a good fight in a very difficult away match with very difficult conditions, and against a very good team that was motivated and fought for 90 minutes.”

Bafana Ba Style Playmaker Themba Zwane handed the Champions a head start in the game with a goal from the penalty spot in the early minutes of the encounter, however Maniema cancelled out the lead with a goal before the half time to level matters between the two teams. According to Coach Rulani the first half of their encounter under the extreme heat in Kinshasa was not a pleasant sight for a team that enjoys possession and counter attack football.

“For us the first half wasn’t very good, we made a lot of unforced errors, we struggled a little bit with the boxes today. Only in the first half we managed the two build ups that they got, we created chances immediately from those two scenarios, including the penalty when they started from the back. They then went long and played off the second ball, which forced us a little bit to drag our line a little bit deeper and our turnovers were far too much.”

“Unfortunately even with the situation where Mosa [Lebusa] made a pass, it started further up when we just couldn’t keep the ball with Pavol [Safranko] and Peter [Shalulile], and that was our story in the first half, too many turnovers, we couldn’t retain our compactness in possession and we struggled a little bit on transition.”

The Brazilians performance improved as the game progressed and they came out firing in the second half as they looked to put the game away by creating multiple decent opportunities and putting the opponents under pressure.

“It was better in the second half, even the numbers speak a very good language. We did a little bit better with the boxes, we [also] minimized turnovers which helped us to be in control of the game and deservedly we created a very good chance, a good goal scoring opportunity with [Sibusiso Vilakazi] Vila who came in and did exceptionally well, but let down by a lapse in concentration with a couple of minutes to go.” said Rulani.

Masandawana’s coach also reflected on the impact of the weather conditions at Stade des Martyr and the playing conditions that they had to adapt to heading into the clash: “It’s about 38/39 degrees Celsius, it’s extremely hot and you’ve [also] got the element of humidity. It’s extremely humid and that of course gives a little bit of a challenge in relation to the respiratory, the recovery of the players, the breathing, it becomes physiology a little bit of a challenge, particularly with regards to the physiological adaptation of the body. The pitch being synthetic, an artificial pitch also doesn’t help [but] these are not excuses, these are things that we had to cope with and I think the players coped with them well, ours was to adapt and we tried our best to adapt in a very difficult match against a very difficult team, against very difficult conditions. [I think] the players gave a very good account of themselves, they played with dignity and respect, the performance was good, just the psychological engagement could’ve been better in regards to minimising the mistakes which I thought in the second half we did a lot better.”

Bafana Bafana international Thabiso Kutumela made his debut in continental football action with The Brazilians and shared his excitement about playing his first game in the highly anticipated African tournament. Kutumela said, “It was great to experience the CAF Champions League for the first time. I am looking forward to trying to win our second leg so that we can continue with the Championship so that I can fully experience the competition. I’ve always wondered how it felt to play this tournament after seeing Sundowns and other clubs playing in the CAF. I am happy that I am now part of Sundowns and I get to experience this and I am looking forward to helping the team win their second star.”