Not a game I enjoyed: Mokwena after Sundowns' record-breaking double over Chiefs

Mamelodi Sundowns might have broken their 15-year record of successive wins in the DStv Premiership with their first league double over Kaizer Chiefs, but the Brazilians' coach Rulani Mokwena was not impressed with the performance on the day.

Mokwena felt his team left themselves “too open” for attack as Neo Maema's first-half strike at FNB Stadium on Saturday gave the Brazilians a 1-0 victory and the 12th on the spin, stretching their lead on top of the Premiership to 17 points after 18 outings.

Sundowns recorded their first wins both home and away against Chiefs in a season after they also beat the embattled Amakhosi 4-0 in their first round encounter at Loftus Stadium in August.  

Sundowns' previous record run of wins, set by Gordon Igesund's league-winning team in the 2006-2007 season, was equalled by Mokwena's side on Monday when they beat SuperSport United 1-0 in the Tshwane derby. 

“From a tactical perspective, maybe not one of the games I enjoyed,” Mokwena said of a match that only saw one shot — Maema's — hit the target out of 18 attempts by both sides.

“Generally it was just too open. Not enough control. But the reasons for that I’ll have to speak to the players first before I come out in the media about it.”

Mokwena insisted he was still happy with Sundowns and doesn't think there was an element of complacency on the part of his side in a match they expected to win after Chiefs lost their first two league matches this year, including 4-0 defeat to AmaZulu last Friday. 

“It's not that I don’t want to talk about it, it’s just I have respect for my players. I have to speak to my players and review [the game] with them first. They must be privileged to hear my opinions first before the public and they haven’t heard my opinion.

“But do not misinterpret that for a dissatisfied [coach]. I'm not dissatisfied with the effort and commitment but there’s more to a football match than just effort and commitment.

“Organisational forms were good but generally I just felt the game was too open. Believe you me, there are many things I was happy about. But I’m that type of person who will say to the players we can do more.

“There are a lot of things we can improve and we’ll focus on getting better and better. I think today’s performance was slightly better than the last two, though still too open.

“But I speak from a coaching perspective when I say we have to improve. When I say that people will say, ‘Hey he’s trying to be modest', and all of that’ but we have to improve and even if we win 15, 16 or 20 in a row, or even if we lose, we still have to get better.

“There’s no ceiling and we have to think about that.”

On Downs' record, Mokwena said: “Huge kudos to the football club, huge round of applause for everybody involved in the football club for what we see.

“I can never have been an individual contribution. Congratulations to the collective and the group of players, the Motsepe family and the board and everybody involved in putting together this Sundowns team that we see today.”

Sundowns face TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday. The Rockets and SuperSport are the only teams to have inflicted defeat on the Brazilians this season. 

SUNDOWNS' 12 WINS IN A ROW

Sept 7: Chippa 0 Sundowns  1

Sept 10: Sundowns 2 Arrows 1

Sept 18: Sundowns 1 AmaZulu 0

Oct 19: Sundowns 1 Gallants 0

Oct 25: Maritzburg 0 Sundowns 5

Oct 29: Royal AM 0 Sundowns 3

Dec 30: Sundowns 2 Pirates 0

Jan 3: Sundowns 2 Swallows 0

Jan 6: Richards Bay 0 Sundowns 2

Jan 10: Sundowns 2 Chippa 1

Jan 16: Sundowns 1 Superport 0

Jan 21: Chiefs 0 Sundowns 1

Downs' record in their 12 wins: P-12 W-12 D-0 L-0 F-23 A-2 GD-21 Pts-36

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