‘What a team’: Mokwena on Sundowns players giving penalty to Shalulile

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has hailed his squad as an “incredible group” for handing a first-half penalty to battling striker Peter Shalulile as the Brazilians beat TP Mazembe 1-0 on Saturday to end top of the 2023-34 Caf Champions League’s group A.

Shalulile stepped up to score the 38th-minute winner, ending a barren spell that went back to Sundowns’ 3-0 DStv Premiership win against Cape Town Spurs on December 13.

The striker did not score at the Africa Cup of Nations as Namibia won against Tunisia and drew against Mali to progress from group E as one of the best third-place finishers despite a 4-0 thrashing by Bafana Bafana. Namibia lost 3-0 to Angola in the last 16 in Ivory Coast.

It says something that Shalulile’s 10 goals in 22 games in all competitions for Downs this campaign is seen as a below-par return.

He has scored three goals in the Champions League, two in the MTN8 and one in the inaugural African Football League final against Wydad Athletic, helping Downs lift the trophy.

It’s his lack of goals in the DStv Premiership — where Shalulile was top scorer in 2019-20 for Highlands Park and Sundowns in 2021-22 and 2022-23 (with Khanyisa Mayo of Cape Town City) — that has attracted attention. The goal ace has just four goals in 11 games in the league this campaign.

Mokwena was asked if he had strategised to give Shalulile the penalty against Mazembe.

“It was not my decision,” the coach said.

“I say this all the time: to be a top footballer you’ve got to be an incredible human being. And you’ve got a captain like ‘Mshishi’ [Themba Zwane], who is a good person and he leads.

“And I saw the decision; I didn’t even watch the penalty because I saw when they gave the ball to Peter and said, ‘What a team, what a group of human beings; incredible.’

“When you have a group like that who say, ‘We understand how important you are and your confidence is and how much you’ve served the team and helped us to win,’ and they hand over the penalty, that demonstrates an incredible amount of brotherhood and unity in the team.

“At half time I said I was very proud of the players and the leadership in the group. Making that kind of decision in a game like this, maybe overriding the importance of the game and going more into the space of brotherhood and looking after a teammate, this group deserves more praise and credit for what they do.”

Mokwena has praised Sundowns for their resilience shown in the group campaign.

After a 3-0 home win against FC Nouadhibou of Mauritania, Downs lost 1-0 against Mazembe in Democratic Republic of the Congo then were held 0-0 at home by Egypt's Pyramids to leave their chances of progression up in the air. Sundowns bounced back with a 1-0 win against Pyramids in Cairo and 2-0 victory away to Nouadhibou, that team's first defeat at home in the group stage.

Downs — who lead the DStv Premiership by 11 points from second-place Cape Town City but with two games in hand — meet TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium on Wednesday (7.30pm).