Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena has admitted that his team were off the pace in their defeat by TS Galaxy and will need to prepare better for the clash with Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.

The Brazilians suffered a 1-0 loss to the Rockets at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday evening.

Downs dominated large parts of the encounter but couldn’t break down a resilient Galaxy side.

Post-match, Mokwena admitted his team struggled with the touch and intensity of the game, taking the blame by saying they will need to prepare the team better.

“Ja, what’s there to say, 70% ball possession, 18 chances, four big chances and then they get two chances,” Mokwena told SuperSport TV.

“The one that they got from a transition and another one with ‘Vila’ on a one on one with Ronwen Williams, but relatively almost nothing. So move on, it’s gonna be a very long season, very long season.

“There’s no time in football, you’ve got to win matches, we’re in a sport of winning matches, as coaches our jobs is to win matches.

“The performance today was not good, we had too many players that were struggling with the touch, the intensity of the game and that’s our responsibility to make sure the team is prepared.

“So, when the team is not prepared, we don’t have enough hunger, we don’t have enough aggression, then we have to look at our preparation and try to be better prepared because there’s a big game on Saturday [against Kaizer Chiefs].”

“It’s beautiful but I’d like to see this when the game is playing, they can be a little bit vocal when it’s 1-0 you know, push the team a little bit more, maybe that’s the extra piece that’s missing for us particularly for the (Caf) Champions League but these are beautiful scenes,” he added.

“And this is what you truly call supporters, people who are together with you in good and bad moments, so we appreciate them, hopefully we can do better, push and try to make them happy on Saturday.”