Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies uphold their winning mentality into the new season

Banyana Ba’style are the defending champions of the Hollywood Super League title, having dominated the 2022/2023 season with 81 points, opening a 6-point gap with last season’s runners up the University of the Western Cape.

The national women’s league was launched on Friday morning at the SAFA House, and Tshabalala revealed his plan to maintain their winning momentum ahead of the new season, with a home game against Royal AM on Sunday at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.

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"When you look in terms of the tactical aspect of the game, we were able to adapt to some of the tactical situations that we were facing in such a way where we managed to play few different systems in some games,” Tshabalala said.

“We are a team that normally likes to play a 3-5-2 but it's important at times we play a 3-4-2, I could remember a game of UJ where we played 3-4-3. A game against UWC where we played as well a 3-4-3 with three strikers. We hardly play with three strikers but that shows that adaptability from the team that we've managed to adapt to some of the situations.

“How can one forget the winning mentality and with a high self-confidence and high self-belief from the players? That alone shows that our players were oozing confidence and we managed to take that as well to the CAF Champions League and I believe that we would also take that into our next coming season."

Coach Tshabalala explains how preseason training has helped in finding the right combinations ahead of their first game in the 2024 instalment of the national women’s league - against an improved KZN outfit in Royal AM - that secured a fifth finish, becoming the only team that won against Sundowns last season.

"First games are exciting and players are looking forward to it. Players want to find themselves in the starting 11 and as exciting as they are, they will definitely set the tone for the rest of the campaign. Also taking into consideration what happened between us and Royal AM last season where Royal AM was the only team that managed to beat us and play a draw against us," Tshabalala added.

By: Mpumi Manyisi