On Thursday, Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena discussed whether the standard in the PSL is good enough to prepare the club for the CAF Champions League.
Despite dominating the domestic league for the sixth season running, the Brazilians have found the going tough in the CAF Champions League, bowing out in the quarterfinals for the last three seasons.
The struggles of Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League have been attributed to the lack of strong rivals in the French Ligue 1, where they are completely dominant. Mokwena was asked whether the same argument could be levelled at Sundowns.
“We’ll only know once we go to it but the PSL is extremely competitive,” he said in a press conference.
“You know sometimes you win games and people think it’s a God given right to win games. It’s not. It’s very difficult to win matches in the PSL and you only have to look at why others are not doing what we’re doing, it’s because it’s very difficult, because otherwise everybody would do it.” Mokwena went on to suggest that Sundowns do need a strong rival in the league to take them to another level.
“If you look at different teams, Real Madrid, to go to a different level, needed a Barca (Barcelona), Bayern (Bayern Munich) needed a (Borussia) Dortmund at times to push them,” he said.
“And you go, Man City needed a Liverpool. You know without a rival going extremely intense with you, it becomes very difficult psychologically to continue on an upward trajectory.”
