A draw is what Mamelodi Sundowns could come out with a crunch test against Kaizer Chiefs when they hosted them on Wednesday night at Loftus Versfeld. A 1-1 scoreline saw the Brazilians taking only a point out of the sold-out midweek fixture.
There was an intense start to the match when end-to-end football was witnessed but the first opportunity came from the hosts when Tashreeq Matthews found an unmarked Aubrey Modiba inside the box. Modiba triggered a shot but the goalkeeper smacked it away.
With only 17 minutes played, a foul on Keanu Cupido forced coach Miguel Cardoso to make an early sub, introducing Grant Kekana in the centre-back position.
Just inside 20 minutes, Brayan Leon came close to finding the back of the net from the left flank. Jayden Adams made a defence-splitting pass after squeezing the ball to find Leon. Leon was, however, closed down by the keeper to deny him a goal.
On the 25th minute, the Glamour Boys broke the deadlock. The ball had come from an interception of Ronwen Williams’ clearance. The ball made it to the area with no Downs defender on sight. Williams quickly came off his line to block the ball but he got a slight touch which was not enough as the ball went past him to find the back of the net.
While there were plenty of clear-cut chances created by both sides, especially by the hosts, a goal is what separated the two at the break as Masandawana trailed.
The second half saw the first chance come from substitute, Nuno Santos when he went into the area looking to shoot but was disposed by the Chiefs defence.
On the 52nd minute, Leon tapped it in for Downs to level matters. The ball came from the right flank from Khuliso Mudau who delivered it to a Leon who was in front of goal to whip it in.
Just after the hour mark, Adams was sent out by the referee after being handed his second yellow card. Even with a man down, Bafana Ba Style were still in control of the game.
Amakhosi came close to snatching back the lead when they kept the ball in Downs’ box while creating chances but the defenders were denying them opportunities to slot it in.
Launched from range, Teboho Mokoena almost added his name to the scoresheet but his powerful effort missed the target by a few inches it went over the crossbar.
In the closing stages of the match, Masandawana were awarded a free-kick which was taken by Mokoena. Whilw it was on target, the goalkeeper smacked the powerful shot away. While the hosts had a plenty of chances in the box, they could only come out with a point in what was a physical match at home.
How we lined up: Williams, Mudau, Ndamane, Cupido, Modiba, Adams, Mokoena, Allende, Zwane, Matthews, Leon.
Subs: Onyango, Kekana, Morena, Lunga, Mkhulise, Santos, Ntsabeleng, Rayners, Shalulile.
I have not commented for a while on our website… I introduce myself to the coach and those that do not know me… It’s obvious why I feel compelled to comment.. THIS IS NOT FOOTBALL… I’ll start by saying… I understand a lot of people are annoyed by Sundowns dominance… To the the point that they are blatantly displaying it… Including officials and even broadcastors… Chiefs came on the field to physically attack Sundowns… With no intent to play football… The ref allowed this… To the point where Sundowns decided to defend themselves… Even the law allows you to kill someone if you defending yourself… I heard the likes of Thomas Mlambo say both teams were aggressive… What do you do when someone is killing you while the police (Ref) are watching… You defend yourself right … What was sundowns supposed to do in that situation? The ref kept on warning Ndlovu for serious foul play… Adams with no serious foul play was sent off… Things like this questions the legitimacy of our football… Where a match is designed for a particular team lose… I would add more but ill end here… Apologies for the long comments.
Our boyz were also too physical. In football it’s an offence to retaliate. Our supporters need to start accepting defeat, and stop playing victims when things are not going our way. Mudau is always playing with his hands in the opponent’s faces, even when he’s in control of the ball, that’s a violent conduct. He conceded a penalty in Bafana Bafana against Egypt for the same offence. The challenges by Adams on Vilakazi and Modiba on Sirino should’ve earned them straight red cards. Tebogo Mokoena is another player who always gets away with murder in our games. For Jayden Adams to earn a 2nd red card within a month constitutes ill-discipline. Yes, Ndlovu should’ve been sent off earlier than Jayden Adams, but if there was VAR we could’ve lost 2 players. There’s nobody who is against Sundowns, we’re the victims of ourselves. In some instances our boyz were faking injuries, even when we were under attack
I get your point Dalom…but one is the consequences of the other…Adams does that because the ref allowing the sundowns players to be kicked…no one defends themselves if there’s no one to defend against…the ref was not doing anything to help the situation….you basically saying Iran must lie down when America attacks them…So Iran is to blame too for defending themselves…sorry to bring politics in it…but anyway let’s take the draw and move on…it’s not over yet..
Members i concur with your comments,it is true most of the people are pulling all stops to make sure that our team is not successful including match officials and football administrators forgetting we are reaping the rewards of our long term investments.Initially when we were signing players and losing games we were told that money can’t buy success now that we are successful we are told that is because of our big financial muscles.On the other hand our players play like they don’t know what is at stake,from the first whistle we were too casual,Modiba was losing balls cheaply,Mudau committing unnecessary fouls and both of them in most of our games like to dive and fake injuries.The least said about Williams the better,in most of the games that we dropped points we were our own worst enemy because we think we are entitled to win every game without working hard,part of the blame goes to the technical team for inculcating this self entitlement to some players,a play can’t commit same error many times with impunity whereas others are punished for one mistake this makes other players to think that they are more important than others.I also think we must review our captaincy,in my view our captain should be Cupido and the Mudau and Adams if they can fix their discipline should be looked at as vice and also Mathews and Allende for vice,i’m looking at a long term future.