Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies head coach Jerry Tshabalala says it was important for him to make his players aware that they cannot exit the CAF Women’s Champions League at the group stage.
This was a message the coach revealed he shared with his charges before they thumped Central Bank of Ethiopian (CBE) FC 4-0 in their second group B match at the tournament in Morocco which followed a shock defeat in their tournament opener.
After the results of match day 2 the group is wide open ahead of the decider round on Saturday. Edo Queens, who are the defending champions’ last opponents in the group, top the pool with four points, followed by FC Masar with the same number of points, Sundowns are third with three points, while CBE are at the bottom with no points and essentially playing for pride in their last group match.
The coach said it was vital that his players remembered who they were representing as well as it would be really sad to exit the tournament early as defending champions.
“I needed to remind them how important it is for us to be in this competition,” said Tshabalala.
“With us carrying the hopes of South Africans back home we can’t bow out of the tournament in the group stages. That would be very, very sad for us having two teams from South Africa representing a big country in South Africa”.
“So I made them aware that it’s a big tournament, it is there for us to defend it and we’ve got to show character, we’ve got to come to the party and good enough they came to the party first half”.
“But I think credit must go to CBE, the manner in which they applied themselves despite them conceding four, five goals in the first half. I really think they tested our character and I believe that we still need to fine tune something.
“There is something that’s missing in this team and we really want to do well and we have to fix it as quick as possible.”
