Motsepe: We Are Hurting

Mamelodi Sundowns chairman Tlhopie Motsepe has acknowledged that the team made mistakes in the CAF Champions League final and would go back to the drawing board to rectify them.

Sundowns were deprived of a chance to lift their second Champions League title when they were defeated 2-1 in the second leg by Pyramids FC on Sunday.

It was the Egyptian-based side’s first Champions League trophy after making two appearances in this tournament.

Motsepe has expressed their disappointment with the setback but intends to go back and analyse what went wrong and learn from those mistakes.

“It was a very difficult game for the club,” Motsepe said.

“Nobody ever wanted to lose the final. I’m sure everybody in the yellow nation feels the same way that I feel. We’re all hurting right now, Masandawana. We’re all disappointed because the long journey in the CAF Champions League has come to an end, and it’s an ending that we didn’t want, an ending that we didn’t envision or believe would happen.”

He continued: “I think for me, I have no excuses, Masandawana. We will go back to the drawing board as a club and as a team, we will learn from this, we will learn from this, we will learn from our mistakes because there were mistakes, but that’s life and that’s football. 

“We all love this game, all of us, supporters, players, coaches, and members who are part of this community, this fraternity of football, all love this game. But we understand that this game is cruel, it’s called the beautiful game because beauty can be beautiful to one person, and it’s cruel to another.”

This was Sundowns’ first final in this tournament since 2016 when they lifted the trophy under the guidance of Pitso Mosimane.

Motsepe has urged the supporters to continue supporting them, although there were doubts and nobody believed that they would reach the finals due to their poor start in the Betway Premiership and Champions League.

“I want to just say to all of them Masandawana, all of the supporters who truly believed and wanted this victory so badly, I understand that you’re hurting because we’re all hurting. We all wanted this so badly, we wanted this for you, we wanted this for our families, and so I want to ask you to be behind us,” Motsepe stated.

“Stay behind us, be kind to the players, and pick up the coach. We must remember this journey that we took this year. Nobody believed how we started this season in the Champions League, I’m not sure there were doubts; there were more doubts than certainties that we would get to this final.

“So I just want to call on everybody in the yellow nation to continue to believe in this project and this football club because we touched the sky. We got to the final Masandawana and unfortunately on this day it wasn’t our time, it wasn’t our moment.”