Mamelodi Sundowns co head coach Rulani Mokwena has shared his views after his team drew 2-2 with AS Maniema in the first leg of their CAF Champions League second preliminary round tie.
Sundowns took the lead twice in the DRC, but were unable to hold on for the win, ahead of next week’s second leg at Loftus Stadium.
Mokwena says it was a tough game, especially after the FIFA break, but he can’t fault his players’ commitment.
He adds that they weren’t at their best, especially in the first half, but they will take the result and move on to the second leg.
“Ja, always difficult after a FIFA international break,” Mokwena told the club’s media department.
“To come back particularly because of course there’s not a lot of training time, and then you miss a couple of players with regards to preparation, and then you get players coming back from different playing concepts and spaces, but we showed resilience and a good fight in a very difficult away match, with very difficult conditions and against a very, very good team that was motivated and fought for 90 minutes.
” For us the first half wasn’t very good. We made a lot of, a lot of unforced errors. We struggled a little bit with the boxes today. Only in the first half we managed the two buildups that they got, we created chances immediately from those two scenarios, including the penalty when they started from the back.
“But I think that then said to them no more starting, and they then went along to to Kitwa (Kalowa) with the number nine, and played off the second ball that forced us a little bit to dragging our line a little bit deeper.
“Our turnovers were far too much and ja, unfortunately even with that situation where Mosa (Lebusa) unfortunately made a miss 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, very short strings of passes, we couldn’t retain our compactness in possession, and then we struggled a little bit on transition.
“And it was better in the second half even the numbers speak a very good language where we we did a little bit better with the boxes, and we did a little bit better with minimizing ama-turn over, which helped us to be in a bit more control of the game, and deservedly we created a very good chance, good goalscoring opportunity with Vila who came in and did exceptionally well, but but let down a little bit by a lapse in concentration with a couple of minutes to go.
“But you can’t fault the players for the commitment, the intensity, the fight, in a very difficult match amidst difficult conditions, in relation not just the preparation but also the type of conditions we faced.
“But we don’t complain at Sundowns, we are strong, we are gallant and we take the 2-2 and we move.”
