Johannesburg — Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena feels the club have failed on the continent in recent seasons.
The Brazilians won the CAF Champions League six years ago under coach Pitso Mosimane but they haven’t made it past the semi-finals since.
The closest they came to challenging for the crown was back in 2018 when they reached the last four, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Wydad Casablanca.
Last season, they were tipped to go all the way, though, having invested heavily in the transfer market only to crash out to Petro de Luanda in the quarter-finals.
That early, surprising, exit raised questions on their seriousness to conquer Africa again, given their dominance on a local front.
Mokwena, one of the co-coaches alongside Manqoba Mngqithi, says he feels they failed last season given the club’s ambitions to win all their matches.
“(To win the Champions League) has always been the aim, drive and focus of the club. That’s why if we don’t get close to that, for me, it’s a failure,” he said.
“The club wants to be there where we are competing and want to win games. We’ll go again, and try our level best to be in a space to win in the end.”
Downs are under no illusion that they’ll simply dominate continental as “it’s unpredictable”. And that’s why they’ve beefed up their squad again this season.
Their new arrivals include Bafana Bafana captain and No 1 Ronwen Williams and Chilean-born striker Marcelo Allende, who cost them a hefty R51-million.
Downs start their qualifying process for the Champions League group stage in the second round after getting a bye in the first round.
They will face La Passe in the first leg at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday, while the second leg will be played at the same stadium in a weeks’ time.
Sundowns are clear favourites to progress to the group stage. But Mokwena says they’ll not treat the game as a foregone conclusion.
“Competitions like the Champions League are not played when you play the semi-final or the final,” Mokwena said ahead of their clash against La Passe.
“Matches of consequence are won in the first game of pre-season and the league where you start plotting a winning mentality going into the season.
“I don’t think for the players there’s fear. Once you start thinking about fear, you are already thinking about failure. We try to be optimistic,” he added.
IOL Sport