Mamelodi Sundowns suffered their second DStv Premiership defeat of the season on Saturday evening as they lost to Maritzburg United at the Harry Gwala stadium by two goals to one. The game saw The Brazilians create many chances but struggle to convert which ultimately saw a last minute penalty benign converted by the hosts to grant them all three points.
Speaking after the game, Co-Coach Manqoba Mngqithi lamented his sides conversion rate after putting together a controlled performance:
“I think we had a very dominant performance, we created enough chances to win the match. We must blame ourselves for the chances we didnt take, because the truth of the matter is that we should have taken them, there were far too many. When you don’t take your chances you get punished.”
“The only sad thing is that we have lost our second match of the season and in both matches were down to dubious decisions. In the first loss to AmaZulu there was a clear offside. The first goal that was scored today [Alfred] Ndengane was climbing on of Thapelo [Morena], in the view of the referee. The penalty, the player was going down before Kennedy made a tackle, it resulted in a penalty and we lost the match.”
“Do we have to lose matches because of the decisions of the referee or because we are not doing what we are supposed to do. We take the blame for not scoring the goals we were supposed to score.”
The loss suffered over the weekend sees Sundowns maintain their position at the top of the log, despite the gap being closed slightly with rival team winning over the weekend, however Mngqithi maintained that Downs are not looking behind them and are solely focused on themselves:
“We are not even looking at the teams in second position, we are focused on our process. We are fighting our battle to ensure that in this fifth cycle of the season we get a reasonable amount of points, and that is our main focus.”
Despite the loss, there were flashes of brilliance from Lesedi Kapinga who created a few chances for himself and his teammates. He was joined in midfield by Haashim Domingo who continued to impress in his spell back on the field after injury. When asked about the performance levels of the two midfielders, Coach Manqoba expressed his delight at what Kapinga and Domingo have displayed on the park:
“We are very excited to gain some more players at this stage of the season who really show signs that they want to take their game to the next level. We are very happy with their work, we can still do better but I am very happy with the progress that they are making – they both score goals and create chances.”
Masandawana now turn their attention to Nedbank Cup Last 16 action as they welcome Mathaithai FC to the Lucas Moripe stadium on Tuesday evening.
We only paid the price for not converting the many chances we created.Very much happy with the football we displayed,ball rotation and retention,passing accuracy,pressing,speed and intensity.The mobility and creativity of Mokoena,Mkhulise, Domingo,and Kapinga make us play on the front foot with few back passes.I think Lunga should have played instead of Lakay, he did very well against Galaxy.My main concern is the lack of trust in other two keepers,we can’t wait to play them when Onyango and Mweene are injured.Mweene should have been rested after th Ahly game,he is old and can’t play week in and week out.He saved us against Ahly but made lots of mistakes,we were lucky to win that game.Truth be his awful timing cost as a game in both goals.You can’t leave your line as a keeper and fail to connect with a ball with no obstruction,he is a good shoot stopper but,terrible when dealing with corners and crosses.Had he stayed in the line because the ball was curling away from him he would have saved it because is his specialty and had he stayed again Modiba would have cleared the ball.I think we should allow Goss and Pieterse to play all our remaining league games.We have very solid defenders so keeper’job is easier.Overall I’m happy for the first time in a while we played like Sundowns we know and love,with purpose.
Coach hard luck and to the yellow Family l have few things to say. I am not criticising.
I think when you are analysing a game would ask a question. Why did Maritzburg player get to that position.
2.why mweene was drawn out of position.
3.we concede goals in the dying minutes against Baroka and yesterday.
4.our defense have to take responsibility for that pelnulity poor defending
Lastly we know that they are people who are saying League can not be one team and is going to be boring.
We know that teams they benefit from referees those in Soweto specially the Gold one because everyone what to see them doing what is Sundowns is doing.l will not be surprised if that ref support a gold team.
For you Coaches and players all you have to do is to defend well and outside the box and score a lot of goals and convert every chance you get otherwise you st and no chance against refs
Moene did not not touch the Maritburg striker.
We need to convert our chances to avoid this poor officiating, we all know that they don’t want us to do well or win anything
Bigger problem that thousands of passes not take shoot game of foot won by goals not by ball position players should know that goals are important in game of soccer
Bigger problem that thousands of passes not take shoot game of foot won by goals not by ball position players should know that goals are important in game of soccer