Ronwen: Sundowns want to do it for SA

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Author: Matshelane Mamabolo
• Publication title: Cape Argus (Cape Town, South Africa)

The Sundowns coach is aware that “the automatic response of the human being is safety”, and has seen in recent matches how his team have tended to be “conservative with their mentality”

“No matter how much you love dogs – and I love dogs – but when I see a Rottweiler, my instinct is to run. It is not to caress the dog.

“Even with footballers, the first instance when they get into a situation where they are playing games of consequence and get closer to winning, the mentality and the reaction of the body and the mind is to say let’s not lose it. And that’s a problem.”

He believes that it is his task to remind his players that they have reached the level they are at through being bold, and wants them to keep at it.

“I encourage them and say go for it! You’ve got this far because you went for it, and it is the only way to go across that line. So I tell them, ‘Guys, put the handbrake down and play with little fear’.

“If you lose, that’s okay, because football is all about winning, losing or drawing. If we are afraid to lose, what are saying to the people who are bereaved, that it’s the end of the world? We lose cars, we lose dogs, we lose pets – we even lose friends. That’s life. And we can lose football matches too.”

Do not, however, misconstrue that to mean Mokwena would be okay with losing tonight. Far from it, because he wants and needs a victory “like the desert needs the rain”.

Besides the lure of being the coach who added a second star above the Sundowns club crest, Mokwena is also eager to go to the Fifa Club World...