Mamelodi Sundowns ladies team crowned champions
"There were some tough games where we needed each other and I had to lift the team up as a captain."
Following an impressive run in the South African Football Association (SAFA) women’s league this season, Mamelodi Sundowns were finally crowned champions this week.
With football suspended because of Covid-19, the association took a decision to conclude the season and declare the current log standings final – effectively handing the title to coach Gerryb Tshabalala and his Masandawana ladies.
Tshabalala said the road to victory wasn’t as easy as it looked.
It wasn’t an easy journey. We were told our league will start in April 2019. We had to start preparing as early as possible, which was February. Unfortunately, our dates were moved once again to August. Eventually, the league started on 25 August,” he said.
“Like every season, we play and set our objectives and goals that we want to achieve as a team. This time around I sat the players down and discussed with them what would be realistic for us to achieve our goals. We agreed on accumulating 31 points for the first round,” he said.
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Their record was phenomenal, setting them on course for the championship after going unbeaten in all 21 matches, scoring 82 goals and only conceding 12.
“There were some tough games where we needed each other and I had to lift the team up as a captain,” said skipper Agnes Nkosi.
“Our toughest game was at the University of Western Cape. We needed each other there and had to fight as a team. They were coming at us, but we managed to press them down. We won that game 2-1 in the end. We were undefeated the whole season,” she said.
This kind of achievement has also given the squad an opportunity to dream big, applying the club’s true motto of ‘the sky is the limit’.
“Dedication, hard work, passion, pushing myself beyond my means as a striker, I set standards for myself like scoring one or two goals per game,” said forward and top scorer Rhoda Mulaudzi, who was part of the Banyana Banyana squad at World Cup in France last year.
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