Gavin Hunt, coach of Mamelodi Sundowns’ arch-nemesis, SuperSport United, said Masandawana need to be judged on their performance in the Caf Champions League, seeing that they are well on course to reclaim the DStv Premiership title.
The Brazilians have somewhat dominated the PSL for the past five seasons, claiming the league title every time but have come short on the continent’s biggest stage where club football is concerned.
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They kick-off their group stages against familiar opponents Al-Hilal of Sudan on Saturday at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Downs goalkeeper Ronwen Williams does not fully concur that the Champions League should be the sole criterion for determining Sundowns’ strength.
“If people want to judge, they can do that because it is their job. Our job is to try and be the best that we can be and do better than last season,” said Williams.
“We have already collected more points in the league than we did at this stage last season and we have scored more goals. We just need to focus on ourselves and control what we can control. We want to win each and every game and every cup that we compete in. If we don’t win, we have to try again. We failed in the last few years but we keep improving and we will try to do better this year,” he added.
His coach, Rulani Mokwena, shares the same viewpoint, stating that the quality of a team should not solely be determined based on their success in cup competitions.
“It is a pity that footballers are marked as successful or failures based on results. A player like Ronwen should never be marked as a failure if he does not win the Champions League because if you watch what he has done for South African football in the last couple of months is success that can never be evaluated and it is something that will echo for many years,” said the Sundowns coach.
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“Your quality is not necessarily reflected in what you win. There are teams who win competitions and we call it accidental success because you need a little bit of luck sometimes. We have to do better away from home because we usually concede goals and they play to our disadvantage in the knockout stages,” Mokwena added.
