Sundowns do the Soweto double to coach’s delight

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena hailed his players efforts in beating both Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs inside one week as they reached the MTN8 final on Saturday.

Sundowns beat Chiefs 2-1 at Atteridgeville to book their place in the 7 October final, just days after they won a seventh successive league match by beating Pirates 1-0 in Soweto on Wednesday.

“It was a semifinal, and semifinals are always difficult. But also semifinals are played to be won, very much like cup finals,” Mokwena told the post-match press conference.

Tickets booked 🎟 We're going to the #MTN8 final! 🔜⏳#Sundowns pic.twitter.com/n8Ul8TMh8K

— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) September 23, 2023

“It's magnified by the fact that we beat two of our biggest rivals in one week. And that's not easy, it's been a very difficult week, emotionally, more than physically.

“And already, the players are shouting for days off tomorrow. So you can understand how difficult it is for this group. Now it's to recover, stay focused. And we've got a very important game on Wednesday against a very difficult team (Stellenbosch). And now we must try to make sure that we reach the final in good way and with good positivity and try to win the next game.

“That's the most important thing. It was only three points on Wednesday, and it's only place in the final and nothing more than that. That's the reality. So as much as we celebrate it's no message. And really, it's something we should never take for granted.”

Sundowns went ahead after only 10 seconds by rushing down on Chiefs goalkeeper Brandon Petersen but also felt the heat as Chiefs played a high press, which forced many turnovers.

“We have to answer the questions, it's football. Some will sit low, some will press high, some will have the mid to low block. Some will do it in phases. We did it to Pirates on Wednesday, we were very, very aggressive. We did it to Chiefs; our first goal comes from homework. We knew exactly what happens when they kick off the ball. Check out how they kicked off in the first leg and what we did and check how we reacted today when they kicked off. We work very, very hard to pick up small details that the players are able to execute. And how many times we beat the press today was also very good,” added Mokwena.

“One thing I can tell you is we enjoy the press and we train to beat the press a lot because it's got so many advantages when you can do that. Credit to Chiefs because they pressed a little bit more different in relation to some of the other teams, they put pressure on the sides, they directed us to the left a little bit in the first half. We found some solutions at halftime … but yeah, it's interesting. Football is a lot of tactical questions and I'm glad that today our boys were able to answer those tactical questions,” the Sundowns coach said.