After winning their record eighth successive match in the DStv Premiership, Rulani Mokwena believes that an invincible season is a dream, but he would back his team to pull off the impossible.
Mokwena was speaking on Thursday at the pre-match press conference ahead of their CAF Champions League second-leg qualifier against Bumamuru. With a 4-0 first-leg lead, Sundowns are on the brink of reaching the Group Stages.
But attention was drawn back to the league after they beat Stellenbosch 3-1 on Wednesday, and continued their 100% win rate in the league, and the question was raised whether it would be possible to do this throughout the campaign.
Mokwena said that he believes his team are capable of doing it, and always go into a game believing they can win, but he also knows just how difficult the challenge is.
“Would I back this team? 150%” Mokwena said on Thursday when questioned about the possibility.
“Otherwise, I shouldn’t be coaching them. They have my undivided, unreserved confidence.
“And it’s not a question of backing, it is a question of understanding of how difficult that dream is. It’s not a goal. It’s not an obsession. It’s a dream.
“It’s something that we work for every single day to win every single match. That’s the responsibility we have at this football club. And the support and the backing, the group knows that they’ve got from me, 150%.
“But it’s also to accept how difficult that is. And understanding that as I’ve said it before, even the team that attempted to do an ‘Operation VatAlles’ didn’t even win the league.
“And that has always been and will always be the most important trophy in any domestic competition. And sometimes, because we’ve won it so many times, with Sundowns, the feeling of winning the league championship sometimes is diluted and is not as strong as it should be.
“Because there is no other competition where you have to play every opponent twice. You have to play home, you have to play away, you have to play 30 games and you have to maintain consistency over six, maybe seven, eight months.
“And that’s very, very difficult. And therefore if you go to the English Premier League, if you ask Man City today, Man United today, Chelsea today, Liverpool today, which title would you put as the number one target?
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“They will tell you the English Premier League? For sure. No, no doubt you go to France, PSG ask them which of the trophies that you are competing in is your number one priority. They will tell you that it’s the league.
“You go to the Bundesliga you go to Bayern, you go to Dortmund and you ask them which one is the priority, Champions League or the Bundesliga? They will tell you it is to win the Bundesliga.
“And that’s the same with us here. And so we should never ever, ever take it for granted that we have a God-given right to win everything and a God-given right to win every match and to win every championship, to do that is very, very difficult.
“And as you rightfully said, for the mere fact that it’s never been done before, speaks to our difficult it is.
“But we still attempt. It’s that ideology of perfection that once again, is something that you know you can chase. But chasing it does not necessarily mean you can reach it, but you still chase it. And that is what we try to do. We try to chase winning every single match.
“Can we win every single match? Of course not. Not in competitive sports, you’ve got to lose some, you’ve got to win some and in fact, you grow more when you lose.
“And you go to any of the greatest in the world in different sporting codes. They’ve lost more, than they’ve won. The best in the world. Yesterday. Pep Guardiola lost, and Man City lost.
“They’ve lost the Champions League how many times? For the first time in eight attempts, he won the Champions League with Man City. It’s very, very difficult.
“So in competitive sport, you’ve got to be prepared to win, lose or draw. But that doesn’t mean you go every day saying, ‘oh but let me prepare to lose.’ There’s no chance. We prepare every single match to win, we want to win every match.
“But we accept that there will be times where we are not going to win every single match and there are games that we’re not going to win, and there are trophies that we’re not going to win.
“But we will definitely give it our very very best to win every single thing. That’s one thing for sure. 150% We will give it 150% effort and commitment and conviction and everything that we have to try to win every single match.”
