Sundowns’ Dhlamini admits competition in Super League is tough

After tasting defeat for the first time this season in the Hollywoodbets Super League, Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies defender Karabo Dhlamini says the team needs to improve because the standard of the league has improved.

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Sundowns have been dominating the Super League for the past three seasons, but this season things are different with a lot of improvement from all the teams in the women’s top tier.

Banyana Ba Style were edged 1-0 by Royal AM Ladies at Tuks Stadium this past weekend, with the loss seeing Downs Ladies now trailing log leaders University of Western Cape by two points. UWC are at the summit of the log with 21 points.

“It is one of those games when you don’t take your chances your opponents will get one chance and they will use it, that’s what happened. It means now we just have to go back to working hard and see what we have to do in our next game,” said Dhlamini.

“The league has improved, there is more competition and you won’t find us winning with about seven or nine goals like we did when the league started. We also need to improve because the league has improved.”

The Brazilian Ladies coach Jerry Tshabalala, meanwhile, says his troops were unlucky not to have scored after creating a number of scoring opportunities. But, he is confident that they will be able to bounce back in their next game.

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“What really happened is that the more they felt we are not their confidence was starting to build. The more we didn’t score they started believing that they are in the game to win or snatch a point. It is unfortunate that we lost all three points. But credit to the players because they gave their all, there were lots of chances that they created and the players that came on injected a lot of energy in the team,” said Tshabalala.

Rest of the results:

Saturday

Coal City Wizards 0, TS Galaxy Queens 6

UJ 3, First Touch Academy 0

Ma-Indies 1, Thunderbirds Ladies 0

Richmond Ladies 1, City Lads 0

Durban Ladies 1, University of Pretoria 2

Copper Belts  0, UWC 2

Sunday

JVW FC 1, TUT FC 0

Mamelodi Sundowns 0, Royal AM 1