Coach Manqoba Reflects on Swallows Draw

Mamelodi Sundowns played to a drawless goal against Swallows FC on Saturday afternoon. The coaching staff took the opportunity to hand some game time to a range of players, giving them the chance to form part of the squad on the day to compete against the Dube Birds.

“We will always use the players that at that point in time we feel are ready to play and the players that we gave a chance today are the players that we believe could do the job today.” said Coach Manqoba Mngqithi.

Goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse featured in the starting lineup for the first time this season and Coach Manqoba was pleased with the display of the man between the sticks: “I was happy with Reyaad, I think he played very well as a goalkeeper, everybody else is somebody that has had some game time during the season but Reyaad is one person that we wanted to see and I think he really gave a good account of himself.”

A steady start to the encounter turned into a physical battle as both team tried to find goalscoring opportunities, Coach Manqoba expressed his disappointment with the results of the fouls in the match: “The officials have got a responsibility to make sure they protect they protect the players and that they run the game properly, but today honestly speaking I don’t think the officiating really served the purpose.”

Abafana BaStyle maintained high possession in this match, however the mood was spoilt by questionable tackles “This is one match that I feel the officials did not do their part because there were many leg breaking injuries that I saw and tackles that were flying all over.”

Despite both teams failing to find the back of the net and Masandawana maintaining their unbeaten away from home record in the Dstv Premiership, Coach Manqoba says the match in Soweto was an excellent display of performance “It was a very good match, first half Swallows had very good build ups, they forced us on to our back foot, but towards the end of the first half we started putting our first foot forward and pushing then and we came back stronger the second half. We forced them to play a lot of long balls from their goalkeeper.”

Mamelodi Sundowns remain top of the log with sixty one points taken from the twenty-eight games in the league. Downs travel to Bloemfontein next to play in the penultimate game of the season against Bloemfontein Celtic.

4 Responses
  1. DOWNS4EVER

    This technical team is going to kill destroy our team,there was no need to play Zwane and Riva in that game,Zwane signaled to be replaced before the start of the 2nd half and they waited until whatever he was feeling got worse,the poor boy has not heeled completely but they rushed him back as if the team was struggling when he was injured.In that kind of games you try to find the replacements of your trusted players not wait until you are forced to do so.If we can ask them they don’t know who will replace Riva when he is injured or leaves,in fact this is the reason why we don’t release players we they get better offers.Players like Zwane can’t carry the team for the next two years and we should have found his replacement by now,stop over reliance on same players.This is the reason why Pitso undermines you because you are destroying what he has built,the players he promoted are not used,the cups he won are gone.Pitso changed the likes of Zungu,he was an attacking player and he changed him to a central midfield,also changed the likes of Morena,Lakay and promoted Tau,Mkhulise.Mkuma and Makgalwa, what have you done?.I was angry at Pitso when he said ï drove this team alone for the past 8 years”, now i understand why he said so.Players like Mvala have been given enough chance and he proved he is not Downs material,Jali is a box to box player and should have been replaced be Mageman not Mvala who loses the ball more than any player in the pitch whenever he plays.90% of the games we played drew Mvala was playing.Management should watch the videos of all our game before the season ends and make an informed and wise decision.

    1. Luvuyo Pomolo

      Funny enough coach your team has not been creating scoring opportunities for the first half no shot at goal its bad for a team of this statue . But you see nothing wrong next season I can promise this team will find it difficult

  2. Zipho

    @downsforever u r spot on member,these r the times to give the likes of Kapinga,Mkhuma,Makgalwa,February,Magerman,Domingo a chance to play.Keletso Makgalwa was really forcing his way into the team under Pitso,bt now he is completely out of the picture,yet the likes of Mvalwa n Maboe r given chances after chances to prove themselves……what is the point of playing Pieters who has been with the team for 3 seasons bt has failed to claim a spot in the team when u hv a young Jody February??????Mgqithi n company need to treat players the same way………..and lastly,Im very concerned about da quality in our reserve team!!!! In all da matches dat i hv watched there r only 2 players that show quality,the rest r not good enough

  3. Dima

    please give kapinga and Domingo a chance, this are exciting players they can win games for us…Kapinga plays the same style as Sirino, please i dont understand why he is not being given a chance..and Domingo can play better than Mvala with due respect…please make us understand…we love this team…