Rulani’s mellow yellow men in seventh heaven
Downs coach Mokwena salutes his champion charges for an incredible season
● Mamelodi Sundowns have been unrelenting in completing an almost unparalleled unbeaten league campaign to win a record seventh successive Premier Soccer League season.
The exceptional pursuit of perfection by the yellow men of Mamelodi to see Rulani Mokwena’s galaxy of stars join the immortal ranks of an invincibles league which clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal and Preston North End call home was derailed on the last day of the season when Eric Tinkler’s Cape Town City beat the Brazilians 1-0 at Loftus Stadium yesterday.
Sundowns’ sensational season included a 5-1 demolition of Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium early this month, a result which confirmed their status as domestic champions with six games to spare.
“It is truly humbling, a reflection of the fact that there is still a lot more to be done,” Mokwena told the Sunday Times on Friday on the eve of the City clash.
“I am not a perfect. I don’t want to be a top coach if I can’t try to be the best human being I can be, with all my imperfections... As long I can contribute to the success of these players and make them better human beings.”
Mokoena was coy when asked to pick a defining moment of the campaign.
“That is one that I will share in my book. It’s too private, too emotional, it makes me cry. Everything that defines this season is how it was supposed to be. The highs and the lows, the betrayal, the failures, the successes. I wouldn’t change anything about this season.
“I am grateful to God for this group of players. The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. When there is success no matter how big or small it may be, my first reflection is that it would not be possible without God’s grace and favour.”
“To even go 29 games unbeaten is incredible...We are champions, we are seven-time champions and the next time we do menwana phezulu (Sundowns logo sign), there is going to be an even bigger significance every time we raise up the seven sign,” said Mokwena in a SuperSport post-match TV interview with Carol Tshabalala.
Despite the disappointment of being denied a historic unprecedented unbeaten record, Sundowns will complete a double if they beat Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Mbombela on Saturday.
Mokwena came within a whisker of joining an exclusive league of Xabi Alonso, the Spaniard whose Bayer Leverkusen side blew
Bayern Munich’s 11-year monopoly of the Bundesliga to smithereens with an unblemished campaign to earn a maiden German crown, and astute Frenchman Arsene Wenger, whose Arsenal annexed the 200304 English Premier League season with 26 wins and 12 draws.
Preston were the pathfinders, blazing the trail back in 1889.
Africa’s greatest club Al Ahly won the 2004-5 Egyptian league title undefeated, a success sweetened by adding that season’s Champions League edition without defeat.
Though they won the inaugural African Football League, Africa’s holy grail continues to elude Sundowns with the 2016 Champions League championship their sole continental crown. The Brazilians were eliminated by Esperance of Tunisia who contested the final against Al Ahly in an all-north African clash in Cairo last night.
For never having laid their hands on the Bundesliga’s crown, Bayer Leverkusen earned themselves a term of derision — Neverkusen. Their incredible 28 wins and six draws from 34 matches amassed 90 points, leading to Lucas Hradecky becoming the first captain in the club to lift the Meisterschale.
Leverkusen were on course for a continental treble, but that dream was crushed when Nigerian forward Ademola Lookman’s astonishing hattrick helped Italian side Atalanta to a 3-0 Europa League final victory and end Alonso’s side’s record 51match unbeaten run. They had a chance to wrap up a double against Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final yesterday.
Sundowns won the league by 73 points, winning 22 matches (one more than last season), drew seven (same as last season) scoring 52 goals (same as last season).
Downs ended the season by conceding 11 goals, the same number let in by Chiefs when they won the 2003-2004 season.
The loss to Cape Town City robbed them of a 76-point haul which would have broken a record of 75 achieved by both Downs and Chiefs in the 1998-1999 season when the PSL still had 18 teams.