Ronwen Williams has bravely stood up to address his error that gifted Borussia Dortmund an equaliser as Mamelodi Sundowns suffered their first defeat at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Sundowns' gallant effort was not enough to avoid a 4-3 defeat to German giants Dortmund on matchday two of the Club World Cup group stage.
The Tshwane giants will, however, also feel they let themselves down after starting the match on the front foot through Lucas Ribeiro, who opened the scoring in the 11th minute.
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A misplaced pass by Williams landed on the path of Felix Nmecha, who finished easily from close range.
After that, Niko Kovac's men added three more through Serhou Guirassy, Jobe Bellingham, and an Khuliso Mudau own goal.
The Brazilians fought back through goals from Iqraam Rayners and Lebo Mothiba, but Dortmund held on long enough to see out the victory.
Speaking to the media in the mixed zone after the match, Williams was candid about his error.
"Of course, it's not nice to concede a goal like that, but we are a team that takes risks. Before I received the ball, I saw Tebza [Teboho Mokoena] there, but he got a call from Marcelo [Allende] to move away.
"So, it was just one of those unfortunate situations.
"But we learn from it and we keep going.
"At this level, if you make mistakes, they punish you, and we learned the hard way today. I think all of their goals were probably mistakes, errors from us and at this level, you get punished.
"Where we come from, we get away with it. This is a good lesson; we shouldn't be disappointed," added the Bafana Bafana number one.
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With one win and a defeat from their two matches played so far, Miguel Cardoso's charges need a win in their final group match against Brazilian outfit Fluminense on Wednesday to progress to the Last 16.
Kick off is at 21:00 (SA time).
Photo: Sebastian Frej/Getty Images
