Williams puts clean sheets down to team effort

Ronwen Williams has refused to take sole credit for the number of clean sheets he has at Mamelodi Sundowns, saying everyone should be praised.

Since winning the number one jersey following his move from SuperSport United at the beginning of the season, the Bafana Bafana captain has kept 14 clean sheets with just six goals conceded in 19 appearances.

And as they turn their focus to the CAF Champions League, where they will host Al-Hilal in their group opener at Loftus Versfeld Stadium tomorrow (3pm), the 31-year-old has urged his side to translate their excellent form to the continental competition.

“It is not about Ronwen. It is about the whole team. Funny enough, before we play, you will find someone like Cassius [Mailula] telling me ‘clean sheet today’. It just shows the mentality that we have as a team,” Williams explained to the media yesterday.

“Everyone celebrates a clean sheet like we scored a goal. So a clean sheet is important because it means we have one foot in three points already.

“It is about continuing the same performance, the same mentality that we had in the Champions League. Yes, it is a different ball game now.

“We’ve done fairly well. We just need to continue the way we’ve been going and hopefully, we can keep more clean sheets as that will win you games, and that’s our priority.”

With Sundowns desperate to win the Champions League, Williams feels the team has improved from where they were in the past two editions, where they were knocked out in the quarterfinal and that they can go all the way this time.

“Before I signed, they let me know how serious this competition is and the target and the objective of the club,” he said

“I knew coming here is what I’m coming into. The players and the team we want to be part of the bigger tournaments, we want to be in the Champions League, the World Cup, and that’s where we see ourselves and that’s where the club is trying to reach.

“It is not easy, it is difficult like we have seen in the past few years, but I think we learned and grew and I think you can see in our domestic league that we have improved.”