Mokwena refuses to believe unyielding, undefeated Sundowns are in a class of their own

When Rhulani Mokwena was asked about how he feels about the prospect of Mamelodi Sundowns going an entire season without defeat in the DStv Premiership, his answer was an outright no, suggesting that he and his coaching partner, Manoqba Mngqithi are not even entertaining that thought.

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Sundowns are 18 points clear off Kaizer Chiefs and are still without defeat after 17 games. In fact, the last time they lost a game across all competitions was back in May this year when they succumbed to Pitso Mosimane’s Al-Ahly side in the Caf Champions League, about 29 games ago.

“Not even in the slightest of imagination,” Mokwena emphasised how his side view the possibility of being invincible.

“We have huge respect for all our opponents and we respect the coaches of those opponents. We don’t speak ill of teams and mention things like being invincible. We have respect and sometimes when we have respect, the universe then also supports you but when you disrespect it becomes difficult.

“We can’t think of being invincible because we are facing worthy opponents and there is still such a long way to go. We have a clear understanding that what goes around comes around, so we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground and continue to work because this club is a team that has instilled this culture of excellence and greatness,” he added.

However, if it does happen that they join clubs like Arsenal in the limited list of football clubs that have gone an entire season without defeat in the league, he will take that with the utmost humility.  

“If that (performance) helps us to be unbeaten until the end of the season, it becomes a bye product because the focus is to make sure that we win games, we analyse and we check. When we play a game we go through about five games of the opposition even when the games come in thick and fast with two days in between,” said Mokwena.

He added: “We analyse our games to make sure that our performance is always at the right level. This is the work that we do and when you have good human beings in your change room who work and do whatever it takes to apply themselves on the pitch for the win, then of course, we understand that great things will come out of that process.”