In a month that saw Bafana Bafana and the Springboks let the nation down badly‚ Mamelodi Sundowns are happy to pick up the baton dropped by the two national teams and fly the South African flag on the international stage.

Bafana embarrassingly lost back-to-back 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde early this month and chances of qualifying for the global showpiece in Russia are hanging by the thinnest of threads.

And not to be outdone‚ the Springboks took things a step further when they were humiliated 57-0 by the All Blacks in New Zealand on Saturday.

Sundowns face Wydad Athletic in a Champions League second leg quarterfinal clash in Morocco on Saturday and they will take a slender lead to the North Africans after winning the first leg 1-0 in Pretoria on Sunday.

“This (game against Wydad) is a national agenda huh?” Mosimane said.

“That is what I told the players. I said to them ‘this is a national agenda. This is not a PSL against Free State Stars match.

“You must be joking. You have to be patriotic. You have to show the country that we might not do it with Bafana‚ but we have got no reason at Sundowns not to carry the national flag.’

“And we have done that. If we do not win the African Nations Cup with Bafana‚ this (the Champions League) is our Nations Cup and we must win the Champions League.

“If we do not go to the 2018 Soccer World Cup (in Russia)‚ we will go to the (Fifa Club) World Cup.

“We believe in going to the Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi this year.

"That is our World Cup.

“So I told them ‘you have got no excuse. There is no excuse. You train together and you are all in the same team‚ you are one team."