It was just one of those

CAF Champions League coming up, so it will give us good motivation to know that we are respected for what we did at this tournament and hopefully we will achie ve bigger things going forward with this group.

SL: With this Bafana Bafana team being so heavily influenced by Sundowns players, what does performing well at a tournament such as this do for your guys’ aspirations for adding a second star for the club and how has playing with so many of your club mates helped? GK: It’s been a benefit for us. I think we’ve all participated in the Champions League, from the hostility, to the pressures that it comes with, so the Afcon just added to that experigood ence. It will give us motivation to know that we’re well-respected, but it is also going to demand a lot from us because it’s going to need us to step up from where we left off in the Afcon. It’s a good pressure, but a pressure that allows us to grow and allows us to get better, but to also not sleep on the laurels because we know we’ve reached the semi-final. We know what we want in the CAF Champions League, so it’s going to give us good motivation

SL: Teboho Mokoena says that coach Hugo Broos is the best coach South Africa has had in the last 24 years. Can you just enlighten us on what makes him such a special coach? GK: I think he is very honest. Coach Hugo doesn’t beat around the bush, but he also gives us our freedom, which is a good thing. I think we’ve been in camp for over a month, but it didn’t feel like we were away from home for as much as we’re in the Ivory Coast. So, I think that ’s just one of the qualities outside of football he possesses. He allows us to be free, feel free, to express ourselves, especially on the field. He knows what we’re capable of and he asks for us to give him what we’re good at and not complicate a lot of things. He instils that confidence in us, which is a good thing, and it’s gotten us this far, so I can definitely relate to what Tebza was saying.

Soccer Laduma: You joined Mamelodi Sundowns at 25 years old. What is it that they have done for you whereby you’ve elevated your level to the point where people around the continent now regard you as the best right back?

Khuliso Mudau:

I think all I can say is that side you need to have the right mentality. You need to stay positive and you need to make sure that you want to learn. If you can check, everyone who is there, almost all of them have improved. So, you need to learn a lot and tell yourself you want to improve, because that side there are corrections. There are a lot of meetings – they want to see your corrections, they want to see your videos and you have to show the coach that you did your corrections. If they are not happy, they will come to you and tell you what it is that you need to improve on.

SL: You had a massive opportunity, with a gaping net in front of you, to take Bafana Bafana to their first Afcon final since 1998 in the dying minutes against Nigeria. In the aftermath of our subsequent elimination, how do you feel about the missed chance?

KM:

You know it’s football, those things happen. Some you will score, some you will miss. I don’t know what to say, these things happen. Obviously when I take the field, I want to win every game, like everyone. It was just one of those.