FIFACWC: Sundowns showed ‘we can compete’ against Dortmund – Williams

Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns.

Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams believes the South African outfit showed that it was not difficult to compete with the best in the world following their pulsating 4-3 FIFA Club World Cup defeat against Borussia Dortmund at TQL Stadium in the USA on Saturday.

The Betway Premiership championship raced into an early lead courtesy of Lucas Ribeiro before the Bundesliga giants drew level when Felix Nmecha capitalised on a huge mistake by Williams to make it 1-1. Dortmund went 2-1 up when Julian Brandt delivered a cross that Guinean striker Serhou Guirassy thumped home before Jobe Bellingham – younger brother of Jude – scored to make it 3-1.

Danish full-back Daniel Svensson curled a deep cross that defender Khuliso Mudau diverted past his own goalkeeper. But Sundowns were not done yet as Iqraam Rayners reacted first to force the rebound home, before substitute Lebo Mothiba ensured a tense end to the battle after he finished off a cross from Jayden Adams.

“There’s not really [a big gap in intensity and physicality], we showed that we can compete, yes they are obviously physically bigger but it’s all about the mind, if your mentality is right, you can go out there and compete with the best, that’s what we showed,” said Williams after the game.

“We had very good chances in the first half, I am just so proud of the boys for the effort, the desire and the fight, the gap is not that big, we proved that once again.”

On the errors that resulted to Dortmund goals, the Bafana Bafana player said: “Yes [it’s disappointing], that was the talk for this week, at this level, if you make mistakes they punish you, which we learnt the hard way today – I think all of their goals are mistakes, errors from us, where at this level you get punished."

“Where we come from, we get away with it [in the PSL], so this is good lessons, we shouldn’t be disappointed, we played our football, showed our identity, so big up to the boys, lot of lessons to learn and to grow from this.”

On his mistake for the first goal, Williams explained: “It’s not nice to concede a goal like that but we’re a team that takes risks and before I received the ball, I saw Tebza there, but he got a call from Marcelo to move away, so it was just one of those unfortunate situations, but we learn from it and we keep going.”

Sundowns will next face Brazilians Fluminense at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida needing victory to be certain of qualifying from the group stages.