With Mamelodi Sundowns securing a hard-fought 1-0 win against a Cape Town Spurs side that adopted a defensive strategy, head coach Rulani Mokoena has appealed for other DSTV Premiership sides to play open football against his team.
Lucas Ribeiro’s neatly taken penalty in the 42nd minute continued Sundowns unbeaten league run to 20 game this season.
The result also meant the defending league champions have reached the 52 points tally in 20 matches, a new PSL record.
Speaking to SuperSport TV, Rulani admitted his wish of playing against tactically open teams, as his side would have the chance of scoring at least seven goals.
“Congratulations to the club, good first-half, I was very happy with the first-half and I didn’t like the second-half at all and a bit of it is my fault. I don’t have enough controllers on the pitch, not enough passes, so I’ve got to look at my subs also.
“But okay good, I’m happy the players are able to grind it out. We play all the tough games, sometimes I feel sorry for the players, I wish someone can play open against us so we can score seven also but we’ve got low blocks, reinforced defences, no space and we’re struggling a little bit on confidence I think also,” Rulani told SuperSport TV.
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The Brazilians laboured to a last-gap 1-0 win over Richards Bay in the league in the previous match. Rulani insists he is happy that his team is grinding out results even though the performance level has dipped.
“But ja, congratulations, three points in the bag and I’m happy the supporters are happy. We’ll just keep going, we have to see this last part of the season, and just grind away the results like we’re doing. This reminds me of the time I was the assistant coach at Sundowns but we have to go. We have to demand more, push ourselves and once we get our confidence back we’ll be a better team for sure,” Rulani noted.
The Sundowns mentor also detailed Spurs’ strategy to play on the counter-attack.
“Ja, they’re tough, they’re well coached, very fast on a counter-attack, especially with the two (strikers), Cupido and Baartman, and then they get possibilities to tens.
“(Asanele) Velebayi is very aggressive and he was waiting for Sailor (Mudau) to go and the moment Sailor goes and then (Sphelele) Pitso occupies the half space, he runs behind them and they’ve got Cupido occupying Grant (Kekana), bringing him to the centre and then they’ve got a lot of space,” Rulani mentioned.
