Key to top Sundowns Ladies’ success is unity – Tshabalala

Having clinched the CAF Women’s Champions League twice in three years, Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies coach, Jerry Tshabalala, said the success in the club is due to the unity among the players.

Sundowns Ladies won the Champions League for the second time in three years when they beat Sporting Casablanca 3-0 in Ivory Coast on Sunday.

Last year, Banyana Ba Style failed to defend their title after winning it in 2021 and lost to AS FAR of Morocco, but they came back strong this time to reclaim it without conceding a goal.

Speaking to the media after they arrived at OR Tambo International Airport yesterday, where hundreds of Sundowns fans gathered to welcome them, Tshabalala lauded the work the technical team does behind the scenes and also the unity they have.

“I would say the only key to success is only two things. The hard work that has been put behind the scenes at training with the girls and one other thing is unity among the team,” Tshabalala said.

“The team is very united and  no one can break that."

Tshabalala also feels it was a good omen for them to reclaim the title as the dates for this year's competitions were exactly the same as in 2021.

“When we won it in 2021, the tournament started on November 5 until the 19th. This year again, it started at the same time and finished on the same date,” he said.

“It was written in the stars that it was coming home. But this year’s tournament was difficult when you compare it to the two previous editions.

“Reason for that was that we found ourselves in Group A with three debutant teams that were new in the tournament, and it was not easy to plan for them.

“It was even difficult to find clips for those teams, but I’m glad that we worked so hard as a team and we went out of that group without problems and we went all the way to win three games in a row.”

Tshabalala added that the focus now was to win the Hollywoodbets League.