As they prepared to take on the highly unpredictable Al-Hilal Omdurman in their Champions League group stages clash at Loftus on Saturday (3pm), Mamelodi Sundowns reiterated their target is to recapture the trophy.
To get their group stages campaign off to a good start, the Brazilians will have to get the better of this Al-Hilal side that is coached by the vastly experienced Florent Ibengé.
“Ours is to do better than we did over the last few years, of course we want to win the Champions League,” said Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena.
“You have to work very hard for that because it is not going to be given on a silver platter. It might not happen this season but we are going to try and win this season.
“We are here for the long term, you can see with the recruitment and also with the promotion of players like Jerome Karelse, Cassius Mailula and Ntando Nkosi.
“We have given them opportunities. There is also the recruitment of Marcelo Allende which is the profile of the age category of what we are looking for because we are here for the long term.
“Long term means every single season we must try to win every match. Those are the objectives of the club. Ours is to make sure that every single day we work hard to win the next match and do our best every competition that we take part in.”
Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams says they are determined to do well in the tournament.
“We just need to focus and control what we can control, just do our job as players. We want to win every game and every cup competition. If you don’t get it right then you have to try again.
“That is the mentality we have as a club, we have failed the past two years but we are improving and we have shown signs that we are better. If people want to judge, that’s their job and our job is to play football and be the best that we can be.
“We must improve from our shortcomings last season. This season we have been much better, we have scored more goals so it is just for us to control what we can.”
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