Sundowns target sharper finishing after COSAFA success, says Sapula

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies coach Godfrey Sapula says his team must improve their finishing, decision-making and set-piece execution before the 2026 CAF Women’s Champions League finals, despite winning the COSAFA qualifiers in dominant fashion.

Sundowns secured their place in the continental competition by beating ZESCO Ndola Girls 2-1 in the final in Gaborone last weekend. The tournament was their third regional title in Gaborone, while the venue for the CAF Women’s Champions League finals later this year has yet to be confirmed.

The South African side won all five of their matches during the qualifiers, scoring 22 goals and conceding only two. Their performances also produced a clean sweep of the main individual awards.

Refilwe Tholakele finished as the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals, Karabo Dhlamini was named Player of the Tournament and Andile Dlamini received the Goalkeeper of the Tournament award.

However, Sapula believes the results did not fully reflect the level his side can reach. He said preparations for the continental finals had effectively begun immediately after last year’s defeat by ZESCO, and that Sundowns now need to carry their winning momentum into the next stage.

“As I said, when we lost to ZESCO last year this time, we started to prepare this tournament, and for us, we’ll try to take the momentum that we have into CAF Champions League,” said Sapula.

“So, it means already the preparations have started for CAF Champions League, so we’re going to take the momentum, and there’s a lot of things that we need to fix. And if you check, I think we created enough chances to wrap the game up in the first half.

“But yeah, our conversion ratio, our decision making, we’re not really that clinical. You know, someone will say we scored a lot of goals in this tournament, and the coach is talking about being clinical.

“But we know that there’s capacity, players can still improve, so we’re going to tap into that potential and capacity that the players have, and work on our scoring ratio, improving our finesse and in the final third composure.

“I think if we do that, you know, because some of these matches are going to be tight, such that we’re not going to get a lot of chances.

“But also to improve our scoring ratio when it comes to set plays we’ve been doing okay, but we can do better also in that regard.”

Sapula’s focus is therefore on making Sundowns more efficient rather than simply increasing their attacking output. He wants the players to convert a greater proportion of the opportunities they create, make better choices in the final third and show greater composure in front of goal.

The coach also identified set pieces as another area for development. While he considers Sundowns to have performed adequately in that aspect during the COSAFA qualifiers, he believes there is scope for further improvement before the higher-pressure matches in the CAF Women’s Champions League finals.

With the finals still to be staged at a venue yet to be announced, Sundowns will enter the competition as regional champions after their unbeaten campaign in Gaborone. Sapula’s challenge is to ensure that the side’s strong results and individual performances are matched by greater precision when their continental campaign begins.