Williams adapts to Downs' style of play

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena  sounded pleased with goalkeeper Ronwen Williams’ adoption of  the Brazillians’ style of play, where a goalkeeper must be comfortable on the ball to launch build-ups.

Though there were moments when Kaizer Chiefs nearly stole the ball from his feet, Williams was a focal point whenever Sundowns built from the back in their 1-0 win over Amakhosi at FNB Stadium at the weekend. Neo Maema scored the game’s single goal that helped the Tshwane giants break their own record of 11 successive league wins, set in 2017.

“The talk [that Williams is now able to start the build-ups] is good but the talk could be different if one or two the situations [where Chiefs nearly snatched the ball]...because it’s very risky to play with the goalkeeper and there were one or two situations where it’s easy to say ‘what are they doing’? It [having a ball-playing keeper] works out for us,” Mokwena said.

“It’s important because big teams must have 11 players in possession on the pitch and we try to do that with Ronwen as a starting point of our build-up scheme.”

Sundowns face TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium tomorrow (7.30pm). Galaxy stunned the Tshwane heavyweights 1-0 in the first round of the campaign. Mokwena has insisted revenge is the last thing on their mind, highlighting the threat the Rockets pose under coach Sead Ramovic.

“Galaxy are a difficult team...a well-coached side. I watched them yesterday [on Friday when they lost 1-0 to Cape Town City away] and you know why they beat us. We are not motivated by revenge that comes from a dark place but we are motivated by our desire to win every single match,” he said.

Mokwena sounded rather dissatisfied with their display against Chiefs, saying the game was too open without going into details. “There’s more to a football match than just effort and commitment. The organisational forms were good but generally I just feel the game was too open,” Mokwena noted.