‘This is failure I am prepared to take,’ says Sundowns coach Mokwena as he vows to continue trying to win the Champions League

A visibly disappointed Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena took responsibly for Champions League exit by Esperance and at the same time committed his future to the clubs and vowed to continue trying to win the tournament.

Esperance beat Sundowns 1-0 in the semifinal second leg on Friday at a packed Loftus through a second half goal from substitute attacker Raed Bouchniba to successfully negotiated safe passage to the final against Al Ahly with a 2-0 aggregate win. 

It was heartbreak for Mokwena and the Sundowns who had high hopes that the Brazilians will overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit and return to the final for the fist time since the club won the competition in 2016. 

“I made a promise to the Sundowns fans that we will win it and I am man of integrity,” he said after the match which was halted for an hour in the first half due to rain and lighting.

“I want to be at this club, I signed a four-year contract even though I had bigger clubs making offers. I made a choice to stay at Sundowns, I didn’t make that choice because I was emotional but it was after a lot of deliberations with my family, with the Motspe family and the players. 

“My intentions are to be here, to stay and do my best every single day to try and deliver the Champions League. But football is business and results oriented and I don’t make those decisions about which coach stays and which coach goes. 

“But when I am here the club will know that I will give 150 percent and if it is not enough like today (Friday), I will give 200 percent the next time.” 

Mokwena suffered similar disappointment last year when Sundowns were knocked out of the Champions League at this stage by Wydad Casablanca and he said football is cruel. 

 “It is experience or maturity, I don’t know what it is but I also have an understanding that this game of football came be cruel. I have experienced it before, I have been through a lot of failures in my life and that’s the reason I appreciate success regardless of how small it may be. 

“I know I am not guaranteed to succeed because I have failed so many times, this is one of those failures and it’s a failure I am prepared to take. One of the things that South African football forgets, which sometimes South African football remembers only when it suits them is that I am only 37 years old. 

“I am only on my first year as the head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns, but I have been here as a co-coach not for three years. If you count those three years as a co-head coach, we have won league titles, the Nedbank Cup, MTN8 and a continental trophy. 

“When I look at my tenure on my return to Sundowns, I feel very proud and previldged that I could contribute to this football club. It is part of the process and I am here to serve like many of us in the technical team. 

“We do everything that we can, to try and help the club and at the end there needs to be a leader in front during bad moments and he can take the backseat in good moments. 

“But in the bad moments, I have to be in front, take responsibility and shoulder the blame the blame for Champions League exit.”