Mokwena defends under fire Mothobi Mvala

As expected, Rulani Mokwena has come to the defence of defender Mothobi Mvala who was at fault for Mamelodi Sundowns’ 1-0 loss to Cape Town City in a DStv Premiership match at Loftus Versveld last Saturday.

ALSO READ: ‘Heartsore’ Johnson admits Chiefs ‘just didn’t show up’

The defeat put a dent on their season on the last day of the campaign as the Brazilians were attempting to write history and become the first South African team to end the campaign unbeaten. 

The defender will need to dust himself up from the error ahead of the season-ending Nedbank Cup final against Orlando Pirates at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

It will be a repeat of the MTN8 final which the Buccaneers won on penalties earlier in the campaign.

Mokwena responded to questions about how Mvala was feeling after the City game.

“He knows that I love him like I love all my players. We all make mistakes and I make more mistakes than anyone else and it’s part of football you know,” Mokwena said.

“My perspective is completely different from a lot of people’s perspective. When people see mistakes, I see 29 games of incredible effort and that is the perspective I choose. He will definitely see it the same way I see it because he will get the emotions from me.

“My players know how much I’m with them and I’ve been with Mothobi Mvala through a lot of things. With all the players, I support them and there are a lot of things that you guys don’t know about this group and the connection I have with them so you can be rest assured that Mvala will see the perspective that I see.”

Mokwena is already looking ahead to next season in what will be yet another gruelling season with so many cup competitions on offer domestically, on the continent and FIFA Club World Cup.

“I think we can only get better because I don’t even think we are at 65% of our potential. Maybe that’s where we’re flirting at the moment and we’ve got so much work to do,” he said.

“A little bit of our progress has been derailed by the fact that we’ve had no training time and a lot of players coming in have needed time to train. Last season the biggest gap was the January window that we had, we had a mini pre-season break and we had time to work.

ALSO READ: Pirates coach Riveiro hails ‘tough’ Stellenbosch FC

“This time we had AFCON and we didn’t even have most of our players. I think with a good pre-season and rest and a good Nedbank final, we can reflect on where we are and want to go as a group.”