‘It does not help to win 24-0 and not win the cup’ – says Sundowns’ Mokwena.
Masandawana demolished Mathaithai FC of the ABC Motsepe League 6-0.
Thabiso Kutumela of Mamelodi Sundowns challenged by Tebello Khanya of Mathaithai during the Nedbank Cup quarter final clash at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday night. Picture: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
What’s the point of winning 24-0 and not win the cup? This is a question that was posed by Rhulani Mokwena to his players, as he could see that they were leaning towards the idea of trying to reproduce the record score-line of any cup game in the country, where Mamelodi Sundowns beat Powerlines 24-0 back in 2012.
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Downs were up against to reach the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup on Tuesday night.
“It is not easy to play these kinds of games because you cannot lie to the brain, it knows the scene and knows that it is Sundowns versus the lower profile team. To get the psychological concentration is very difficult but the players tried very hard to do,” said Mokwena.
“Everybody has been talking about the 24-0 that Sundowns had in the past and at half-time we had to tell them playing to chase that record means absolutely nothing because that team that won 24-0 was a superb team, it achieved its own great things and does not deserve to be compared to any other of the Sundowns team in the the present, the future or the past. The same goes for this generation. It is special because it has achieved its own special milestones and it has broken its own records and doesn’t need to be compared. Moreover, it does not help to win 24-0 and not win the cup.” he added.
The Downs mentor went on to reveal how challenging it is to compete against a side from the lower division, especially if there is very limited footage of them.
“It is not easy to play against an opponent that you don’t know much about but our preparation and diligence to make sure that we know as much as we can also allowed us to get our players in the right frame of mind given the game on the weekend, it is not always easy to get the focus of the players but they did very well and huge complement to our squad for the good result,” said Mokwena.
