The Mamelodi Sundowns technical team may have only spent a week in Qatar, but they managed to watch 17 games in the five days they were at the FIFA World Cup.
Sundowns technical staff members Rulani Mokwena, Steve Komphela, Manqoba Mngqithi, Wendell Robinson and Flemming Berg spent the first week of the World Cup racing between venues to watch as many games as they could.
Mokwena gave some insight about the trip, during which they also met legends such as Peter Schmeichel and David Villa and some coaches of World Cup team, saying they were grateful for the opportunity.
“The trip was very good,” Mokwena told Sundowns’ media department.
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“First, I think when you speak about this trip, I think we’ve got to 100% thank the club, thank the president of the club, the chairman, the Motsepe family, for the privilege that they bestowed upon us to send us on the trip.
“And to give us an opportunity to not just witness history being made, but also learn from some of the best coaches, some of the best football players and some of the best technicians, different countries, different playing concepts and styles in the world, you know, and experience it firsthand.
“We got an opportunity to watch 17 games in five days, which was something that was a very difficult thing to do in attending four matches per day. But it’s something that myself and the rest of the technical team, coach Manqoba (Mngqithi), coach Steve (Komphela) and (technical director) Flemming (Berg) and (goalkeeper coach) Wendell (Robinson) were able to do, even though it was very, very difficult, but we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to get it done, you know.”
“And as difficult as it was with a lot of travelling, a lot of walks, long distance walks, long distance jogs even sometimes because we were trying to win over time in between the games,” Mokwena continued.
“But we managed to do it by encouraging each other and supporting each other through the days. And it also gave us an opportunity to build our own chemistry and spend a lot of time with each other, which helps to formulate some form of very good group dynamics and know each other better off the pitch.
“And so it was from that type of perspective, from an educational perspective, was very, very good. We met Gregg (Berhalter), the coach of the USA, we met the Technical Director of FIFA.
“We were privileged enough to experience these things and to see the level and also thanks to Flemming for organising these things, because he used also his contacts with these people to be able to to help us meet some of the coaches of these European nations.
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“But for sure, we can summarise it by saying it was a great success.”
Image credit: Steve Komphela Instagram
