Monday, Nov 14, 2022 11:29 AM
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Jerry Tshabalala has congratulated his ASFAR counterparts on a “well deserved” CAF Women’s Champions League title haul in Rabat on Sunday as the South African watched his side crumble in the final.
A 4-0 win off Ibtissam Jraidi’s hat-trick and Fatima Tagnaout’s effort condemned the former holders to their first defeat in 10 matches, across two editions at Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah.
The 42-year-old, who led the South African side to the African title in 2021, is cheerful in tasting his first-ever defeat in the competition and has displayed great sportsmanship in the face of humiliation.
🇲🇦 @ASFAR_Officiel ➡️ 🏆
2022 #CAFWCL bracket final update 🔚#EmpoweringOurGame pic.twitter.com/RyIn8awBWP
“Congratulations to ASFAR, they deserved it and played better. I can’t fault my girls too. We gave everything we could, it’s all a game of football, and there are three things, you win some, you lose some and you draw some,” Tshabalala told CAFOnline.com.
“”Unfortunately, it will be our turn, I would say we’ve lost with pride, we lost to a better team, congratulations to them, the better team that won.
“In the first 15-20 minutes, we press them very hard, but it was just an unfortunate situation when we lost. This means we need to go back and look at ourselves, and now know how we can approach the game when we meet them again, but basically, we’ve learnt a lot from this game, we’d go back home with that.”
When asked further why he thinks ASFAR deserved the triumph, Kappa as fondly called said: “The effort the Morrocan has put in terms of improving their women’s football, you can see today they are reaping the rewards.
“We can’t always have two teams dominating women’s football, it is about time other teams and other countries come and challenge, to make our football grow, especially women’s football in Africa.
“It is good to see what the Morrocan has done for the ladies, they’ve invested a lot, I am hoping all other African countries will do the same so that we can have stronger competition in terms of the club level, to the national team level.”
🇿🇦 @JerryTshabalala the mastermind behind @SundownsLadies great performance! 🪄
Keep up the great work 💫#CAFWCL | #EmpoweringOurGame pic.twitter.com/rSZxUI9icp
The five-time South Africa champions will leave Morocco disappointed, having failed in the course to defend their title but undamped Tshabalala has some cheering message to their fans.
“My message to everyone back home is that we’ve learnt the hard way, then we’ll go back and rectify whatever we thought we didn’t do right, like I said earlier it is a game of football,” he went on.
“We expected to see us winning, but it is sad to see us losing with a heavy margin score, but not only that we still need to go back home and look into it from start to finish. We are the champions and we bounce back like the champions.”
3 Abdel Khalek Tharwat Street, El Hay El Motamayez, P.O. Box 23 6th October City, Egypt – Tel.: +202 38247272 – info@cafonline.com
All rights reserved © 2022
