PSL winners Sundowns halt celebrations

The Brazilians claimed the PSL title in a sublime 3-nil win over University of Pretoria on Wednesday night but put a hold on celebrations as they eye a strong start the CAF Confederations Cup this coming weekend.

Like Premier League winners Leicester City, Sundowns have secured the Premiership title with two league matches still to play in the season. With so much going on, assistant coach Manqoba Mnqithi said celebrations were postponed.

“Unfortunately we could not have celebrations last night because we are playing another crucial match this weekend against Medeama from Ghana. We decided to go back home earlier in order to rest for our next match,” Mnqithi told ECRSportswave.

“But everybody is excited; this was the target we had set for ourselves. I also want to give special credit to the coach for the leadership he has given all of us in the team and the work ethic he has set for the whole group because I believe this group has worked very hard and that is why they deserve the results and outcomes they’re getting.”

Sundowns claimed the title in fine style midweek. Anthony Laffor scored a sublime hat trick against AmaTuks, marking a successful return from injury. Mnqithi credited the striker for meeting expectations.

“Honestly, we know Anthony’s capacity but we were a little bit worried because he’s coming off an injury and we weren’t sure what he’d be able to give us. I must say he really gave a very good account of himself and the whole team is very happy with him having scored three goals in that match.”

Laffor worked well with player of the season hopeful Khama Billiat, who provided two assists to his striker. While massive celebrations were in order, Mnqithi insisted that waiting to be presented the cup after their final league game will be a fitting occasion after a stellar season.

“It is very important for all of us because we did not only just want to win the league, we had set targets to achieve in winning this championship and the next two games still have to push us towards that target. It will be worth waiting for in the end because the boys have worked very hard for it.”

The assistant coach believes there is a special work ethic in the Sundowns camp and their desire to win matches has made them successful thus far. While individuals have been impressive all season, Mnqithi insisted that a team effort was key to their success.

“I wouldn’t want to single out players because if you look at the number of goals we scored, they were scattered all over. Khama was there, Castro was there, Keegan was there, Keke was there, Teko, Wayne Arendse, Thabo – everybody contributed towards the outcome. I believe it was one of the best team efforts.”

That culminated in a 20-match winning streak during the season, which was put down down to short term goal making.

“To be honest the focus was not on winning those matches, it was on achieving the targets we had set for ourselves in a cycle of five games at a time. Ultimately that culminated in not losing any games in 20 matches and I believe that’s where us winning the championship stems from. Our focus was on each game at a time because each had its own significance within the group of matches that we’d targeted in that point of time,” Mnqithi said.

With the league in the bag The Brazilians have no plans to take their foot off the gas. They want to win their remaining two league matches against Wits and Platinum Stars to secure the record of the most log points in PSL history.

“At Sundowns, every match we play to win and this one is no different. We’ve got our own targets and winning this match still brings us closer to the targets we’ve set. We wanted to break records and make it difficult for any other team in the future to match the record we’re pushing for. We’re on course to make a record in terms of the number on points in the league. The Wits match becomes as significant as the rest of the other games in the league.” 

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