Mamelodi Sundowns defender Mosa Lebusa has detailed how coach Rulani Mokwena fully won over the players with ‘crazy ideas’ during a ‘wow moment’ on their path be being crowned champions of the inaugural African Football League.
The Brazilians went into the second leg trailing Wydad Casablanca 2-1 but emerged triumphant at a raucous Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Tshwane, thanks to strikes from Peter Shalulile and Aubrey Modiba.
In his interview with iDiski Times senior writer Velile Mnyandu, the Welkom-born centre-back unpacked what it took for him and his teammates to trust and believe in Mokwena’s new winning methods.
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“We know he has come up with crazy ideas that we were like, whoa, this one,” Lebusa told iDiski Times.
“Just to give you the background story, there was a time we were playing the AFL final, the second leg, and he came with a different press; the centre-backs were to be pressed by the number 8, so during the last training session, he could see that the team wasn’t comfortable.
“Then he said to the whole team ‘this is how we are going to get the goal’ but we were not buying into that.
“During the session, we stopped and said to each other ‘let’s trust him. It’s probably going to work’. We got to the final, and Aubrey was the one that was pressing the centre-back; remember the second goal, got the ball, and scored a beautiful goal.
“And from there, that’s when we fully, fully trusted him; every decision he came up with, no matter how crazy it was, we worked with it.”
