Mamelodi Sundowns remain unbeaten in 2026 following their victory against Durban City on Tuesday night at Chatsworth Stadium. This comes after they defeated their hosts 1-0, thanks to Katlego Ntsabeleng’s only goal of the match.
Coach Miguel Cardoso’s charges looked to stamp their presence very early in the meeting, which led the hosts to remain in their half as they tried to defend the ball. This led to Arthur Sales almost breaking the deadlock but the goalkeeper’s body denied him.
The visitors, however, finally managed to break the deadlock on the 11th minute and it was through Ntsabeleng. It came as a through pass from Aubrey Modiba to find Ntsabeleng who had cut inside the area to shoot past the goalkeeper.
The Durban-based side came close to levelling matters from the counter. The goalkeeper fired a shot over to the other half finding a player who attempted to drive it into the area. Khuliso Mudau, however, snatched the ball off his feet to keep the score in Downs’ favour.
The biggest effort from Bafana Ba Style came through Sales whose chance sailed over the bar after Modiba delivered the ball to the face of goal from the left flank.
An attempt to clear the ball almost saw Masandawana doubling their advantage. In what looked like the ball would go out, it led to the goalkeeper back-paddling to his line to catch the ball before it could cross the goal line.
Ronwen Williams was called to duty when City entered the final third and fired a shot. Williams shifted to the far post to make a catch.
The opening half was concluded by a big effort from the hosts. After the Downs defence was left compromised, Durban City went forward and on the left flank, a low pass was delivered into the centre of the area where a shot was fired. The effort, however, rolled a few inches wide. The visitors went to the interval with a goal advantage.
Five minutes into the second half, Jayden Adams made a delivery to Brayan Leon who was inside the box. The Colombian was, however, denied by the crossbar.
Just inside the hour-mark, Mudau made a cross to Leon who was available in the box. Leon connected the ball with his head as he tried to redirect it towards goal but it went over the bar.
The hosts started to force errors out of their guests. Marcelo Allende was forced to play the ball short back to Williams which was almost intercepted but the Downs keeper managed to clear it away but conceded a corner kick. The set piece taken almost amounted to a goal but Williams denied City.
The visitors looked to score more goals, especially in the closing stages of the match. They unfortunately couldn’t penetrate the defence and had to settle for a goal in what was a titanic tussle of a match.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Mudau, Ndamane, Kekana, Modiba, Adams, Allende, Ntsabeleng, Sales, Matthews, Leon.
Subs: Onyango, Cupido, Morena, Lunga, Mokoena, Mothiba, Letlhaku, Rayners, Zwane.
I will be the happiest man if Cardoso leaves us at the of the season irrespective we won both trophies I mean the guy doesn’t see any wrong that are being done by our players especially at the back together with that stupid goalkeeper of ours too casual and too many backpasses and unnecessary sideways soccer instead of killing the game and he was boasting at the post interview about too many passes whereas the final score was one nil,he’s too lenient to this players and Pirates are scoring avalanche of goals and I swear once we drew Bucs will take this league because of goal average..
You can’t dwell on one Nil scoreline because anything can happen and just look what they will be doing in Tunisia it will be same sitting at the back not scoring as if in Loftus we are guaranteed goals than opponents sometimes I blame our supporters for this kind of soccer slowly build ups entertaining fans not being hurry the so called Downs way soccer I wish next season we get a new strict coach whom will stop this thing of too many backpasses at the back,I saw Pitso to one of the interview sayings you can’t always do this thing of slowly build ups whereas the strikers are waiting for the ball upfront and at Downs there’s no sense of urgency because of William and his defenders the is in the centre they will take it back to the goalkeeper what a boring game to watch and lastly our players are lacking discipline I wonder our technical staff what are they doing about that every hame it’s a booking.
Very much disappointed with the attitude of the players,the is lot of complacency in the team.Our useless back passes make horrible opponents look good and the chief culprit is Williams,i once questioned if he went to school because his thinking is way behind his body and age.It takes a stupid person to the same wrong thing several times.Lunga was introduced and the only thing he did was back pass after back pass sometimes i blame favoritism in the team because the last game Basedien played he was excellent and now he is nowhere to be seen but Lunga plays bad and he is always in the team,the same goes to Onyango he is always on the bench,if we had wise coach we would be preparing life without Onyango and spoiled Williams.Mudau a player fouls him and try to apologize he becomes aggressive and earned unnecessary card.People wonder why Kekana is not selected in Bafana,the guy plays like a robot,he can’t move forward with the ball and most of his passes are going to the keeper,that type of play don’t belong in the national team.Most of our players played only with their legs last night,their brains were not functional.With the attitude displayed last night i don’t foresee good results in Tunisia.The way we played last night it is like almost beating a hungry to death and give that person foods and that person hits you back because of the strength he got from the foods you gave him.There was no threat from Durban City they couldn’t even string two passes together but we ended the game edge of our seats. Guys you are at work respect your employers,everything is expensive but supporters still manages to buy tickets to come watch you,we all deserve some respect.Leon was isolated and frustrated upfront because he would make a forward the ball would go to the keeper.You can’t score goals when you keeper receives more passes than your striker.Sometimes i understand why coach keep Santos in the pitch even when he is tired or having a bad game because with him in the pitch you are guaranteed forward passes.
No Downs4ever this attitude of our players must be addressed by the Management not to say they’re interfering with the coaches job,here we are running a business not a street soccer and another problem once the players stays longer in a team they think they own it.Gaurdiola when he took over at Barca he released Ronaldihno and senior players to create a healthy dressing room.Kekana,Modiba and Williams are the main culprits of this nonsense football and this thing started by Rhulani and we don’t suffocate our opponents by attacking fast and even Zwane came and did the almost that of sideways soccer and we will be blaming our strikers of not scoring more goals.
We need a coach with balls who will shout and rebuke them if they start to do this nonsense,we can’t guarantee we will won all our left seven games and another thing we don’t have lucky when we play Chiefs at Loftus I prefer Moripe stadium we might come with the draw there at Loftus,Yesterday I ended up wishing Dbn City to score so that we can come to our senses, this players are spoiled and underestimating their opponents maybe once we draw points with Pirates they will play proper soccer and go for the kill,if you can move your eyes away on the score on tv while they are playing you can swear they’re leading by eight goals to nil.
They are lucky here in Africa because away goal is still existing but mark my words on weekend we will see again this type of soccer depriving us an away goal rule by scoring maybe two three goals hoping to score infront of their supporters and my question is how many games they failed to do that infront of us because thina asidlali we may feel up the stadium but they must do the business on their own.
I once said we manage the team like government employees whereby the work until they are 65 years.I’m sure they are working behind the scene to extend Onyango,Mvala and Kekana contracts when we have many young central defenders.What I’ve also noticed is that when Kekana is not playing we score many goals.Last night i watched Barca and A Madrid game,Barca starts from the back going forward,you will never see their keeper on the screen even when their back line is in possession of the ball.In our case deep in the second half we had a free kick close to the 18 yards of Durban City and we kicked the ball back to our own and it ended up with our keeper.We have conceded more than 10 goals with this of playing with the ball at the back.We can go check our previous seasons,we were scoring more goals and conceding less goals than any other team now this season is not the case.We were always mile ahead in terms of goal difference now is not the case. I’ve always maintained,you can’t concede many goal when you play away from your goals.There is no trophy for ball possession.You can have more ball possession than your opponents and lose or draw the game but you can’t score more goals than you opponents and lose or draw the game.Let the players use their brain effectively and efficiently .