Champions! How Sundowns Ladies Triumphed
The road to victory wasn’t as easy as it looks, says coach Gerry Tshabalala, reacting to the announcement that his Mamelodi Sundowns side were crowned champions of the SAFA Women’s League by the mother body’s hierarchy this week.
With football suspended because of Covid19, the association took a decision to conclude the season and declare the current log standings final – effectively handing the title to Tshabalala and his Masandawana ladies.
“It wasn’t an easy journey,” says Tshabalala.
“We were told that our league will start in April. Then we had to start preparing as early as possible which was February. Unfortunately, our dates were moved once again to August, eventually, the league started on August 25.”
Their record was phenomenal, setting them on course for the championship after going unbeaten in all 21 matches, scoring 82 goals and only conceding a miserly 12.
“There were some tough games where we needed each other and I had to lift the team up as a captain,” explains skipper Agnes Nkosi.
“Our toughest game was at University of Western Cape. We needed each other there and had to fight as a team. They were coming at us, but we managed to press them down we won that game 2-1 in the end. We went undefeated the whole season.”
Coach Tshabalala shares that the mandate was clear from the beginning.
“Like every season, we play and set our objectives and goals that we want to achieve as a team. This time around I sat players down and discussed with them what would be realistic for us to achieve our goals. We agreed on accumulating 31 points for the first round,” he reveals.
This kind of achievement has also given the squad an opportunity to dream big, applying the club’s true moniker that The Sky Is The Limit.
“Dedication, hard work, passion, pushing myself beyond my means as a striker, I set standards for myself like scoring one or two goals per game,” says forward and top scorer Rhoda Mulaudzi, who was part of the Banyana Banyana squad at World Cup in France last year.
