Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies are not used to losing. Never mind losing 4-0. However, that’s what happened when the 2021 African champions were dethroned by Morocco’s Asfar in the final of this year’s Caf Women’s Champions League on Sunday night.

The hosts of the second-ever edition of the premier club competition for Africa’s female footballers went into the final as slight favourites over the defending champions, boasting home advantage and support.

They didn’t disappoint, helped by Sundowns Ladies’ ill-discipline — which resulted in a converted penalty as early as the 13th minute.

Sundowns’ comeback efforts would take a further knock after forward Rhoda Mulaudzi was handed a red card on the half-hour mark.

With seven minutes played in the second half and the score at 1-0, the misery of the South Africa side was compounded as skipper Zanele Nhlapho received her second caution of the match and was subsequently sent off.  

It helped hat-trick heroine on the night Ibtissam Jraïdi, as well as electric winger Fatima Tagnaout, run rings around the outgoing champions, before the Moroccans eventually sealed the tie with a comfortable 4-0 triumph.

“They deserve it. They played better than us today. I can’t falter my girls. We gave everything. It’s all in the game of football, which has three results. It’s either you win, lose or draw. Unfortunately, today wasn’t our day. But we lost with pride and to a better team,” said Sundowns coach Jerry Tshabalala after the humbling defeat.

The loss ended Masandawana’s nine-match unbeaten run since the inception of the tournament a year ago, which had seen them win seven and draw two.

Ironically one of the two sides they had failed to beat was Asfar, who they were grouped with last season. During that draw, they also failed to break the Moroccan team’s defence as the contest ended nil-all.

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

However, Tshabalala said there wasn’t much to read into the two clashes, as they represented two different goals for the team, at different times.

“The previous match we were not at a point where we needed to fight as hard as we could. We just wanted a point. Today it was a different game, whereby we needed to give it our all — which we did. It’s just an unfortunate situation that we conceded an early penalty and all that,” the Sundowns mentor told journalists.

“To lose to the same team we couldn’t break [even last season] tells us that we need to go back and look at ourselves. To look at how we approach the game, especially if we are to meet them again.”

Of course, this match marked the second time in 2022 that South Africa and Morocco met in a women’s continental final showpiece. Banyana Banyana famously beat the North African nation back in July to clinch their first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title.

Whereas Nigeria has been the perennially dominant nation — with South Africa never far behind — it seems the Moroccans are also doing the right things to grow women’s football in the nation. A development which Tshabalala lauded.

“The efforts that the Moroccans have put in terms of improving their women’s football, you can see today they are reaping the rewards. We can’t always have two nations [Nigeria and South Africa] dominating women’s football. It’s about time other counties also come up and challenge. That will make women’s football grow on the continent.

Tshabala’s charges now switch their attention back to their remaining fixtures in the Hollywoodbets Super League, which they had already won before heading to Morocco. There they will tackle Coal City Wizards on Thursday. DM