Borussia Dortmund won on Sundowns’ errors, says Williams

Ronwen Williams has narrated how his glaring error in Mamelodi Sundowns’ 4-3 defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday occurred, admitting that in the Premier Soccer League they often get away with the kind of errors that saw Dortmund punish them.

However, he feels the gap “isn’t that big” between them and Europe’s elite sides.

Just when Sundowns were a goal up, courtesy of Lucas Ribeiro’s stunning strike in the 11th minute, Williams tried to build from the back but ended up passing the ball to Dortmund’s Felix Nmecha. The German midfielder just slotted the ball into Sundowns’ unguarded goals to make it 1-1 five minutes later.

The Fifa Club World Cup Group F encounter in the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, was the second in the tournament for both teams.

“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,'' Williams said.

“At this level, if you make mistakes, they punish you and we learnt 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.”

Sundowns would be punished again when Mokoena was cheaply muscled out of possession before Serhou Guirassy put the Germans ahead in the 34th minute. Jobe Bellingham benefited from another suspect goalkeeping effort from Williams to score Dortmund’s third goal on the stroke of halftime.

The Sundowns keeper spilt the ball in front of Bellingham, who made no mistake on the volley. Sundowns would dignify the scoreline by scoring through Iqraam Rayners and Lebo Mothiba later on. Williams insisted the Brazilians proved that they can compete at the highest level, adding the gap wasn't “that big” between them and Europe's elite teams like Dortmund.

“We showed that we can compete. Yes, obviously they [Dortmund] are physically bigger but it’s all about your mind ... if your mentality is right, you can go out there and compete against the best and that’s what we showed today,'' the Sundowns shot-stopper stated.

“I am just proud of the boys for the effort, the desire and the fight. The gap isn’t that big and I think we proved that once again today.”

Bellingham said his first goal for Borussia Dortmund was a surreal experience as the new signing from Sunderland made an immediate impact and was named man-of-the-match at the end of the Group F encounter.

“It’s a little bit surreal really when the ball hits in the net, it’s just crazy,” the 19-year-old said. “Everything happened so slowly but yeah I’m really pleased.”

It was a second run out, but first start, for Bellingham since his move from Sunderland to the Bundesliga giants, where he will look to follow in his elder brother Jude’s footsteps.

Jobe’s goal was smartly taken though the Sundowns goalkeeper palmed the ball straight at him. But Bellingham avoided an attempted block by a defender and sent the keeper the wrong way, by cleverly holding his shot for a split second.

Bellingham said it had been a hard assignment in the midday sun in Ohio, where the temperature was 32°C.

“I think the conditions make it so difficult, especially for us being a European team. They [Sundowns] played a fantastic game but I’m sure they’re used to this kind of weather, but we definitely aren’t.”

With Reuters