Mamelodi Sundowns suffered a 2-0 defeat to Al Ahly at the Al Salam Stadium on Saturday evening in the first leg of their CAF Champions League quarter final. It was a night of high drama in Cairo that ended with the home team having a positive start in the tie.
Mutual respect between the two sides was evident in the opening stages of the match, both teams displayed football of the highest quality, having a go at each other by moving the football quickly across the pitch. Mosa Lebusa was alert early on to immediately clear the ball away after Al Ahly’s early attempt to test Denis Onyango.
The score remained goalless for both teams, Downs continued to press with intensity to deny their opponents space to play the ball, this proved to work well as both teams still had not registered any goals. It was the combination play of Gift Motupa with Aubrey Modiba that saw the ball hit the woodwork as the game began to heat up. Motupa went close again with another promising header that went wide across the keeper’s sight. With The Brazilian’s threatening presence growing, the visitors were pegged back when Taher Mohammed put the defenders under pressure with an unexpected shot on target that hit the back of the net to give the Egyptian giants the lead.
Moments before the half time break Lebohang Maboe found himself in a good position to equalize for Masandawana, however the defence of the home team denied the strike.
The second half began in the same fashion as the first however this time it was Downs who were attacking with intent. Lebusa had the first clear cut chance of the half when his header was saved by El Shanawi in goal. Kermit Erasmus made an immediate contribution off the bench as he combined in attack with Motupa and created an opportunity that was saved for a corner. The technical team made two extra substitutions with Lyle Lakay coming on for Aubrey Modiba and Promise Mkhuma replacing Gift Motupa.
The Brazilians attempts on equalizing were short-lived at the brink of full time when Salah Shalabi extended the lead for the Red Giants to close the doors of a comeback from the visitors.
The game ended in a 2-0 win for Al Ahly with the return leg to be played on in a week’s time.
How the team lined up: D. Onyango, Nascimento ©, Lebusa, Coetzee, Morena, Modiba(79’ Lakay), Maboe, Mkhulise, Sirino (68’ Erasmus), Motupa (79’ Mkhuma), Shalulile.
Subs: Mweene, B. Onyango, Lakay, Erasmus, Jali, Mvala, Vilakazi, Mudau, Mkhuma.
These three coaches costed us the game, why substituted Sirino and Matupa who were among men of the match? Mkhuma is still young and does not have enough experience with this type of games, you have experience players like Vila and Jali why not using them? A very stupid mistake from Onyango, he should box the ball even get a yellow card. Now we have to score three goals without conceding, which is not easy.
Yaaaa, you’re quite right member. Every game they substitute Sirino, even when he’s playing good. It’s like they memorise their substitutions.,After Gift and Sirino went off we stopped playing completely. We just need a coach next season and dissolve this coaching committee, it’s clearly not taking us anywhere.
What problem this technical team has with Vila? This man is one of our best and experienced players, but they do not use him anymore preferring youngs like Nkhuma who do not have experience in the games of this magnitude. Disappointed with the result especially the mistake of Onyango, the technical team has to work hard to rectify their mistakes, their decisions should be based on merit not feeling, like Sirino and Matupa, I don’t know why they substituted them, they were among the best in the field.
I always say if your first is wrong you will never win games our coaches make errors and its worse with Rulani he spends time analyzing opponents open with putting more effort in our team. I don’t see us proceeding further and besides Pitso knows us all
Fellow members I don’t think its over we can score even four goals next week, All Ahly is not the same and I don’t think Pitso will last to that team its an ordinary team nowadays, Come Saturday Pitso will park the bus and we need players that are skillful to unlock them such as Kapinga and Vila and I saw they don’t like dribbled we might get set pieces.
Pls they mustn’t put Mkhuma on that day that boy is always falling and I hate to think about Onyango’s mistake eintlik he’s stupid to say the least.
If we can apply sense of urgency and not too much back passes we can beat them easily I saw they are not good like the AL Ahly we knew and they’re afraid of us,its not over guys.
The problem here starts &ends with Mngqqithi leaving Lyle Lakay& Jali who is better than Maboe &Mkhulise combined.I mean Jali can absorb the pressure, can mark, can make a short &a long pass with great ease.Maboe can run the whole game like a headless chicken and waste great chances,kick stupid free kick s & applauded and rewarded with a starting lineup the next game.Instead we put Mkhuma to do what in a game of that magnitude?Khuliso played very well if you consider him as a natural right wing last game&Jali played all the minutes only to find that he is an understudy of Mkhulise a player who doesn’t have any short on goal for almost every game; Mngqqithi & company what ever dagga u r smoking is very strong for the 3 of you may be it’s coming from Lusikisiki.Lakay is the sole free kick scorer& specialist but putting him on the bench and bringing him in the dying minutes of the game how’s that going to help us?We played Al Ahly last year &they beat us 2 nill &came at Loftus &we could’nt score,r we going to score this time around knowing very well that Pitso will put 3 central defenders &once Al Ahly scores we r required to score 4 goals if we want to progress to semis.We r asking & hoping for too much come second leg.Mngqithi can you be better than Pitso because u r having a great material at your disposal but u r failing to utilize it.Another thing u r failing to b a head coach because u r very quiet from that bench &I don’t know that u know u can be fired from that bench, can you make strong decisions by bringing Kekana because he has scored a goal coming from bench almost on par with Mkhulise & Maboe who have been playing throughout the season.
Sundowns has quality players and quantity technical team 1st mistake why sideline Kekana whats special about Maboe play every game why play Modiba head Lakay big mistake Manqoba be head coache i believe Steve better than always do same substituted Serino new require next season
Do we always hv to substitute Sirino?????? Hay this technical team is starting to annoy me with this favouritism,Maboe plays poorly and starts every game,yet Jali who perfomed well in the last game in left on da bench…….we need a proper coach nxt season,not this nonsense
All we are asking from our coaches is to apply their minds…. Nothing beat expierence… Games are not the same… You need to change tactics, plan A, B n C… Pleae Mkhuma is not ready… sent him to Arrows to learn…. we have done it b4 with Themba, Mabunda, Zwane n Tau… Why is He difference. Please bring element of suprise… Right back is a problem…Big games away, U need expierence soldiers like Jali, Mvala n play from deep sometime . Please no Mkhuma in the 2nd leg.
One of Pitso’s was to kick our players… Especially Sirino… And the ref didn’t protect our players. I don’t know what since happened, why Lakay is not playing as he’s one of the players of the season for me. Onyango’s mistake makes the result look bad… I don’t know why we complaining about coaches because you can lose matches even with one coach… I don’t see where it fits in. Liverpool, man u, R Madrid etc lose matches with one coach. Anyways good luck to the team on Saturday… It is possible!
Modiba played very well and he’s justified the benching of Lyle Lakay in all the matches he’s started. Al Ahly were not even attacking us from his side, but from Morena’s side. Even the 2nd goal came from Lyle Lakay’s side after Modiba was substituted. The three coaches clearly cost us the game, and there’s no doubt about that. Their substitutions in all our games leaves much to be desired. Even in our game against TTM they substituted Sirino, the only player who looked like he could create something.
But why bench Jali and Vila for the whole game! We need Kekana for such huge games! There is no way that Mkhuma can be selected ahead of very experienced player for such a big game! Jali should be restored in that midfield ahead of Maboe or Mkhulise! These 3 coaches are very stupity! The need to be fired! Why always sustitute Serino even when he is playing well! Vilakazi can add value in such big matches! Wake up coaches!
clueless coaches is destroying our team, how can you replace serino with mkhuma while on the bench you villa and jali? caf championship is not for grooming players like mkhuma and this thing for playing for ballpossition not playing to score is boring OOoh we out of caf
We are down and definitely not out,i’m hopeful we can still qualify for the semis.We just need to play them at 3pm at Moripe stadium because Loftus won’t do it for us.We also need to put more emphasis on finishing it really need special attention because it has been our downfall all season long.All is not lost.
We’ve lost the battle but not the war, we can still turn this around, lets us just support the team and try not be coaches. We all have different opinions on who must play or subbed, unfortunately we have no control over that, but we can support the team to the end, irrespective of who is selected
This game nearly killed with that line up minus Zwane minus Jali, Mvala or Kekana.Maboa scared to be kicked minus one player Denis Conceiver school boy mistakes Pitso knowing that we are slow starters mounting pressure our weakest link and resort to kick us dirty tricks. Pls bring Judy February good on penalties if one arises or if we go 2-0 draw and penalties shoot out.
Maqoba pls take charge stop sitting while we are being sluggish be a supporter too to motivate players.