Peter Kanjere
November 28, 2025CAFCL: “My past has zero influence on Sundowns v MC Alger”- Mokwena
CAFCL: “My past has zero influence on Sundowns v MC Alger”- Mokwena
MC Alger coach Rulani Mokwena has downplayed Friday’s meeting with his former employers Mamelodi Sundowns in Algeria, describing it as a usual tough CAF Champions League assignment.
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The Algerian Ligue 1 pacesetters, who remain unbeaten in the domestic league, have an obligation to bounce back from the 2-1 loss they suffered to Al-Hilal Omdurman last Friday in a Group C match of the 2025-2026 Champions’ League in Rwanda.
MCA will now be up against the South African opponents whose start to the group’s race was a convincing 3-1 victory over the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Saint-Eloi Lupopo last Saturday.
Having been sacked last season in a shocking manner at Sundowns, Mokwena, for all his soft spot for the PSL giants, surely has plenty to prove to his former pay masters.
However, the former Orlando Pirates mentor told the press on Thursday that his focus was on the game itself and not that the visitors were once his employers.
“No, at the end it is the players who play,” Mokwena said.
“The coaching influence and my past has zero influence on the game. The game of football belongs to the players. The players know this. I said this to the players. We can get the information, we can train but at the end of the day, they execute it,” he said.
Why Rulani Mokwena needs a win
Mokwena dismissed talk that MC Alger stand a good chance of winning the Champions League title if they overcome the 2016 winners from South Africa.
“No, you cannot say that. No competition has ever been won in November. The message inside the camp is that every match, we want to do better. After every training season and after every match, we want to be better, and then hopefully come May, we are in a position to compete for titles,” Mokwena explained.
The South African has since emphasized the need for MC Alger to bounce back from the defeat at the hands of Al-Hilal.
“We first needed to recover some players from a difficult trip to Rwanda, and then assess our performance against Al-Hilal,” he said.
“We made an analysis of our performance against Al-Hilal, and then we started our preparations like for any other opposition and game.
“We looked at some of the strong points and some of the weak points, and then we tried to give some information. Not too much information, but enough for the players to play the match. Nothing special. It is the Champions League of course. We know any difficult Champions League game is very difficult.”
MC Alger’s next game for the group will be at home against Belouizdad on December 8 while Sundowns will host Al-Hilal Omdurman on January 23.
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