Mamelodi Sundowns return to action this weekend as they make the short journey North across the country to take on Sekhukhune United in the DStv Premiership. The Tshwane giants have only played two games with Babina Noko, in both occasions it was Downs who walked away with maximum points and currently have a hundred percent winning record, but according to Coach Manqoba Mngqithi this weekend’s meeting is not a guaranteed walk in the park.
“I think they are strong on set pieces, their crossing game with [Tshepo] Mokhabi on the left, [Thamsanqa] Masiya on the right [he’s] very quick and [has] very good delivery and they also have [Roderick] Kabwe on the left who is also very good with the delivery of setpieces. The central midfielders of [Linda] Mntambo and [Glen] Motsepe is very solid in making life every difficult for everyone, and the back four with [Edwin] Gyimah and [Daniel] Cardoso inside, and Nyiko Mobbie makes it a very powerful team to deal with and we know very well that we are playing against a very good team that is very offensive as well.”
“They have not started very well this season, they’ve played very well but unfortunately in their last match against Richards they could have easily scored more than five goals,they got some really good chances in that match, so it’s people that we can not take for granted, people that are working really hard. They’ve employed the services of some of the best strikers in the country in [Victor] Letsoalo, [Tshegofatso] Mabaso and unfortunately [Tashreeq] Morris is suspended for this match, but they’ve been playing a very offensive game with a lot of crosses into the box and creating problems but unfortunately they have not really scored as many goals as they have created. It’s a little bit of a banana skin that needs us to tread very carefully because they are a very formidable side.”
The Braziians pulled off an action packed victory in front of a sold out crowd at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium last week Saturday following COVID-19 restrictions that have been removed in stadiums. Sundowns called their encounter “SandawanaSupporterDay” and filled the day with stadium activities, beverage stations and entertainment as they hosted one of their biggest rivals Amakhosi. Coach Manqoba shared his admiration for the supporters, and said: “Firstly one must thank the Yellow Nation for the support that they are giving to us, because ever since the stadiums have opened it has looked very good.”
“In our first match in Cape Town we had a very decent crowd away from home and it felt like we were playing at home. Against Kaizer Chiefs I think I saw the rise of the yellow nation into a level that one would want to keep for the longest of times and one would wish that the yellow nation can continue to support us, regardless if we playing home or away, we would like to have those decent crowds because they drive us, their singing and beating of the drum always drives us and we really appreciate their presence in the stadiums.”
Mamelodi Sundowns clash with Sekhukhune United in the DStv Premiership on Saturday, 20 August at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium. Kick off is 15h00, live on SuperSport TV.
As long as you promise to treat our opponents with the same respect you gave to Chiefs you are guaranteed to see us in numbers.One other thing for our support base to grow rapidly is to ensure that Nasir always shine because we lots of Ethiopians in the country and those people love and support one another.I remember they outnumbered us in one of Bafana game against Ethiopia,he can be our three in one trump card,viz ,winning games,growing support bases and also business wise in terms of buying jerseys,by the way we have two beautiful jerseys,on Tv they look ugly but when you the live they look wow,yesterday i bought both of them bcoz i had difficulties in choosing one them,they are must have.
I keep on wondering why Mngqithi&Rulani keep on shooting themselves on the foot why is Nasir not on the starting line up or let alone on the bench?Let me guess trying to be clever by making stupid decisions,lets hope it doesn’t backfire and say Villa made them lose the game.The player had a stella performance but who am I?
Poor team selection is going to be the downfall of these coaches this season ,if they don’t improve , they will go and we will forget them just like that.
But who’re they going to select because even Shalulile’s cowishness is starting to come out now
why is Nassir and Jali outside the starting line up? also when fighting you take the best to the field, we continue to play B Onyango and in the process we need to accommodate him in our play ,we can’t play an all out attack consistently because you have to guard against counter attack. Our play is compromised by poor team selection.
Also when Jali is not there , lets try Zungu, Cotzee not Mokoena and Mkhulise, for me Maema is still good ,we also need Ralani where is he? We need energy there.
Why fix something that has work well for us. Why play Maema in the middle. He offer us nothing. Too much back passing
Too much back-passing indeed member, the biggest culprit being Mkhulise. There’s just no hunger all around, that’s why it’s even difficult for my fellow members to pin-point where our problems are. The team has totally lost that hunger to win. Our win against Zebras totally fooled us. I think the introduction of new players can be a solution as they’ll be hungrier than our old players, but I’m not a coach and I trust they know better than I do
We loose points to teams like TS Galaxy, Sekhukune, teams from which we should collecting maximum points, mxm. It is becoming easy and normal for us to make draws and loose hayikhona, from small teams nogal.
Mngqithi take that armband from Zwane,give it Ronwen if Jali is not on the field of play.Some results are created from the bench if u may ask me,I mean what took them so long to make 3 substitutions?Maema must know that he must not rise to the occasion only when we are playing big games and Modiba was caught way out of the mark and that exposed Rushine&Onyango,his(Modiba)left a lot to be desired when it comes to make a cover for the defense.Rulani&Mngqithi can over analyze the game and in the process lose the plot to make the team win the game.And u could tell after we conceded the way we were not going to get the second goal.If Jali was on the bench why didn’t they bring him in the second half.The real reason Jali left the field early is he is brought in a high pressure game not prepared,I mean if Jali played today it was going to be easy for him to play against Supersport.
You do not fix what is not broken, I’m sure come Monday we will be told Nassir pulled a hamstring in training and that’s why he was not on matchday team, that Jali wasn’t 100 matchfit. Lastly B Onyango as I said before isn’t Sundowns’ material at all, it looks like we choose teams to up our game against, that was very poor by our standards and yet my coaches will beg to differ
Does anyone know if our 3 wisemen ever read our comments
Members..👆 but why did we take out the most affective player… Gaston..why vele…hayyi suka…who is that genius..who made that call
These coaches are also trying to justify their signings at the expense of the tried and tested at sundowns, why Mokoena, and why Mudau ahead of Morena, why Modiba ahead of Lackay ? When Morena and Lackay are there , you are likely to get a surprise goal because they can also score , we do not depend on strikers, when they are there our game is dynamic. Lackay is also a freekick specialist of note, not these chance takers or one season wonders. Mokoena and Mkhulise are a weakest link.
Very poor game, how can you concede like that? you loose the ball in the center and instead of making the ball direct you run facing your goal post