Mamelodi Sundowns had a positive start to the year following their 2-0 victory over Orbit College in the Betway Premiership on Monday night at Loftus Versfeld.
Five minutes into the opening half, Masandawana rattled the opposition’s defence through Jayden Adams. From a first-time volley, after finding space, Adams fired a powerful shot but was denied when it shattered the frame of the goal.
As they continued dominating the position and creating chances, Lebo Mothiba also looked to add his name on the scoresheet when he fired a powerful shot on the right flank. His effort was, however, smacked away by the goalkeeper.
In the 22nd minute, Arthur Sales finally broke the deadlock for the Brazilians. His sharpness and high press on the goalkeeper was rewarded when he intercepted the ball and found the back of the net through his acrobatic effort.
In the 30th minute, the visitors pulled their first attempt at goal from a corner kick effort. An acrobatic effort almost saw them level matters, but the ball sailed over the bar.
Just before the break, the visitors pulled a shot from range after a successful counter, but this effort also went over the bar. Despite losing their rhythm in the final minutes of the first stanza, Masandawana headed to the break with a goal advantage.
The hosts continued with their dominance in the second half, creating convincing chances. Their Orbit counterparts, however, had tightened their defence a little bit.
In the 65th minute, Loftus Versfeld witnessed a dream start for Brayan Leon, who scored on debut. The ball came from Thato Sibiya’s left foot delivery – who was also making his first team debut, which was connected with Leon’s powerful header that found the back of the net.
Just after the 70th minute mark, Orbit College made two strong attempts in front of the goal, both sailing over the bar as they were left unmarked.
In the closing stages of the match, Bafana Ba Style were denied a goal. Miguel Reisinho had managed to shoot the ball past the goalkeeper, who was off the line, but there were white shirts on the goal line that managed to clear the ball away. Leon looked to get a brace on debut when he swung the ball towards goal, but the keeper denied him when he smacked the ball away.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Morena, Johannes, Kekana, Sibiya, Mkhulise, Adams, Letlhaku, Matthews, Sales, Mothiba.
Subs: Onyango, Khoza, Mdunyelwa, Basadien, Reisinho, Allende, Zwane, Santos, Leon.
I was very impressed with the performance of the first half,the high press and speed going forward.Most of the players showed hunger.Very top performance from Adams,Letlhaku,Johannes and Sibiya.Sales played well in the second half ,I also think Reisinho is got something special.Sundowns is not one man team as the coach wanted to make it to be,honestly we didn’t miss any player.Hope the coach realised that,hopefully we can build on that performance,we played with high intensity and lots of vigour.You can’t rely on few individuals when you have abundant of talented players.
Decent performance indeed, I would also add Mkhulise in the list of those who stood out for me, playing a slightly different role, he did quite well.
I’m a bit concerned about the rumours of Pitso coming back.If that is true then those who are leaving us don’t know what they are doing.It will be like replacing Cardoso with Cardoso,the stats don’t lie we became stronger after Pitso left,since he left we never had to wait until the last day to win the league.Soccer has evolved we need someone with sharp brains.Pitso and Cardoso are the same,they both believe in old players,I was surprised when I heard he is opening an academy when he was not promoting players from development.When appointing a new coach we need to conduct a thorough research and not allow someone useless agents scam us like they did with Cardoso.Cardoso never lasted a season with the team he had preseason with,if we did thorough research before appointing him tha would have been a red flag.No good coach can be fired more than three times never.