‘We’ve had a fantastic season’: Rulani after Sundowns’ cup defeat to Pirates

Rulani Mokwena admitted Mamelodi Sundowns’ last-gasp, 2-1 Nedbank Cup final defeat against Orlando Pirates at a packed Mbombela Stadium on Saturday will leave a “deep scar”, but also said it should not detract from a “fantastic season” for his team.

Mokwena said the defeats where a coach and his players feel they did enough to deserve to win a game hurt more, and he felt Saturday’s clash was such an occasion.

The statistics of the website Transfermarkt show Downs had a huge 69% of possession but that Pirates might have used their 31% a little better.

Bucs had 10 shots to seven, though five of Sundowns’ were on target to two by Pirates. Bucs edged corners three to five and earned 18 free-kicks to Downs’ 14 despite having far less of the ball.

Mokwena was asked about the pain of losing out on a treble — Sundowns could have added to the DStv Premiership and African Football League titles — after a cup final where victory could have aptly capped an otherwise stellar season where Downs have broken a string of records.

“Every defeat leaves a very deep scar and it doesn’t matter what type of occasion or game it comes in,” Downs’ coach said.

“The pain is there for sure. It’s not about losing to Pirates, it’s not about losing the cup final, it’s about losing the match.

“And then losing a match that really in my heart, and I haven’t watched it again, I thought we played well enough to win it.

“That hurts even more. In football the ones you lose and deserved to lose are a little easier to digest.

“It’s the ones where you think you played exceptionally well, where you get the dagger right at the end, where you make ... really we could have defended that situation a hell of a lot better [for Mofokeng’s winner]. And we knew about it because we worked on it yesterday at training.

“But anyway, congratulations to Pirates and commiserations to this group — I think they deserve a bit more than what we’ve ended with.

“We’ve had a fantastic season, we’ve played some incredible football and under very difficult circumstances we’ve kept going right to the end.

“Fifty-seven games in a season is not easy. I think 28 or 29 of those were cup games and that’s also not easy because those are games of consequence.

“But I suppose that’s how we’ll develop as a team and how we’ll use the off-season to introspect, all of us including myself, and try to go again next season.”

Sundowns striker Lucas Ribeiro saw a 10th-minute penalty stopped by Bucs goalkeeper Sipho Chaine before the Brazilians took the lead through Themba Zwane’s 54th-minute strike.

Pirates coach Jose Riveiro’s surprising gameplan of keeping some of his most in-form stars on the bench as impact players appeared to prove masterful.

After Patrick Maswanganyi equalised from the spot in the 71st one of Riveiro’s impact players off the bench, Relebohile Mofokeng, scored a superb winner four minutes into added time.