Sundowns to go all out in dead rubber against Cotonsport

Normally, most teams would give a number of fringe players a chance to get a taste of the Caf Champions League football when they play a dead rubber match.

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But for Rulani Mokwena, he has hinted that he has not intentions to remove the foot off the pedal when Sundowns take on Cotonsport on Saturday.

Masandawana have qualified for the knockout stages and they still have the appetite to finish at the summit of Group B.

“It is important for us to finish number one in the group because it has a lot of connotations to it. We want to make sure that we complete the group stages with the same excellence that we played every single match. Winning is a habit and it is important to go into the knockout rounds with the feeling of winning and this is the mentality that we carry into this match,” said Mokwena.

“Pressure is a privilege because of the quality and the players that we have, we always have pressure to win and deliver. We have to work every single day with this mentality and as coaches, we have to demand more and work hard. We know that we don’t have a God-given right to win matches so we have to work hard and that is what we try to do every single game,” he added.

At this point, most teams have studied Sundowns and their style of play, but still struggle to stop the force that Downs have become.

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Mokwena says he has no plans to introduce a different approach, even though their slow build up has backfired in recent games.

“Part of our way of how we want to play is because we want to play like that, not because it looks good. We do that because we believe that is the best way of winning football matches and so we try to make sure that we work very hard every single day at training,” said Mokwena, who just claimed the DStv Premiership Coach of the Month for February and March.

“We have certain schemes that we work on and if there was a different way to play and we were 100% convinced, we would go that way. But we have chosen to go in a way that we believe represents the quality of the players that we have and they can demonstrate their talent and abilities to help the team win.

“We also believe that it resonates with the culture of Sundowns, the piano and shoe-shine because at this club it is not about just winning football matches but it is about how you win,” he added.