RULANI Mokwena will send his Mamelodi Sundowns team onto the Loftus Versfeld pitch for tonight’s CAF Champions League semi-final second leg clash against Esperance (8pm kick-off) with a clear message – don’t be afraid to lose the game.
The Sundowns coach is aware that “the automatic response of the human being is safety”, and has seen in recent matches how his team have tended to be “conservative with their mentality”.
“No matter how much you love dogs and I love dogs, but I see a Rottweiler, my first instinct is to run. It is not to caress the dog.
“Even with footballers, the first instance when they get into a situation where they are playing games of consequence and get closer to winning, the mentality and the reaction of the body and the mind is to say let’s not lose it. And that’s a problem.”
He believes, though, that it is his task to remind his players that they have reached the level they are at through being bold, and wants them to keep at it.
“I encourage them and say go for it! You’ve gotten thus far because you went for it, and it is the only way to go across that line. So I tell them, ‘Guys, put the handbrake down and play with little fear’.
“If you lose, that’s okay, because football is all about winning, losing or drawing.
“If we are afraid to lose, what are saying to the people who are bereaved, that it’s the end of the world?
“We lose cars, we lose dogs, we lose pets – we even lose friends. That’s life. And we can lose football matches too.”
Do not, however, misconstrue that to mean Mokwena would be okay with losing tonight.
The Pitchside Podcast welcomed special guest, Coach Surprise Moriri to the show to look ahead to tomorrow's unmissable #TotalEnergiesCAFCL clash at Loftus! 👆
— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) April 25, 2024
Brand New Episode Out Now! 📲 https://t.co/jIXZAusm6W #Sundowns pic.twitter.com/SR2zQTYACQ
Far from it, because he wants and needs a victory like the desert needs the rain – the young coach intent on not only taking Sundowns to their first final since Pitso Mosimane won them the continent’s premier club knockout competition in 2016.
Besides the lure of being the coach who added a second star above the Sundowns club crest, Mokwena is also eager to go to the Fifa Club World Cup, where he will test himself against some of the top coaches he admires and tries to emulate with his approach to the game.
“We are going to play tomorrow’s game to win, and to win the Champions League (thereafter), because that’s what we want to achieve. And it (the Club World Cup) is a competition we want to play in,” he said.
All that, though, is looking a little too far ahead, Sundowns needing to first overturn a 1-0 deficit against a defensively miserly Esperance team who need only keep a clean sheet to progress to the final.
Now in their second successive semi-final, the Brazilians are counting on their supporters to give them a huge boost and cheer them to victory, and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams has called on the entire country to get behind them tonight.
“We need everyone. Let us do it for South Africa, for South African football. Let Sundowns go all the way, with your support. It can only lift the SA game,” the Bafana captain said.
Tomorrow, we give it EVERYTHING! 🙌#Sundowns #TotalEnergiesCAFCL pic.twitter.com/WgVbgFIRnd
“Let South Africa as a whole get behind Sundowns. For one day, put your personal clubs aside. We are doing it for the next generation, so that they can dream big.
“When I came on to the scene, I was only dreaming of winning the league and the Nedbank Cup. Now I dream of winning bigger, (so) let’s help the ones coming after – let them dream much bigger.”
So long as they do not play with the fear of losing, Sundowns have a chance.
In any case, though, last weekend’s defeat in Rades means they have no choice but to play to win, Mokwena’s motivations notwithstanding.