Mamelodi Sundowns News Today: Star admits lack of confidence

Latest Mamelodi Sundowns news, including Mothobi Mvala’s worry about the team’s form and why a coach feels their CAF Champions League absence won’t be felt.

Latest Mamelodi Sundowns News

Mvala admits Sundowns still lacking

Mamelodi Sundowns defender Mothobi Mvala has admitted that the team is currently not at their best despite being top of the league table.

Mothobi Mvala of Mamelodi Sundowns. Image: Mamelodi Sundowns

Sundowns bounced back from their shocking CAF Champions League elimination to beat Marumo Gallants 1-0 on Tuesday and Mvala accepts they were not at their fluent best, even if they won.

The defender feels their confidence took a beating from the Champions League exit at the preliminary round but is backing them to return to good form starting with Saturday’s match against Durban City.

“We needed to win the game [against Gallants] so that we can win the hearts of our supporters and give them happiness again because we disappointed them the previous game. But it’s part of the game, we rectified our mistakes and tonight we gave it our all, but I still feel there’s room for improvement,” he told the club’s media.

“In the first 10 to 20 minutes we were making mistakes because the confidence was not there. We were losing the ball cheaply but as the game went on we started getting confident and started playing well.

“You couldn’t see that it’s a new team [line-up], but you could tell this is Sundowns and the way the team played. I know we’re going to rectify things when we do our debrief. We’ll take it from there and I think in the next game, we’ll do better than we did in the previous one,” he added.

Sundowns ‘won’t be missed’ in Champions League

Meanwhile, former Tunisia head coach Nabil Maaloul insists the absence of defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns from the CAF Champions League will not dilute the competition.

Thabang Matuludi of Mamelodi Sundowns. Image: Mamelodi Sundowns

Sundowns suffered a shock preliminary round exit against Wiliete SC of Angola last Friday and it means the Brazilians and record winners Al Ahly will not be in the group stage this season.

Al Ahly are playing the second tier CAF Confederation Cup and Maaloul feels while that competition will have more attention this season, the Champions League will still not lose its status.

“There are big teams in the Confederation such as Al-Ahly, CR Belouizdad, USM Alger, Al-Ahly Tripoli, CS Sfaxien and FAR Rabat. The competition will be very fierce, and it is possible that the Confederation matches will be stronger than the African Champions League matches,” Maaloul said as per Soccer Laduma.

“The African Champions League is the highest and strongest tournament technically and physically, even in the absence of big teams like Al-Ahly, Sundowns and Wydad, but it remains in first place at all levels.”