Continental champions, Mamelodi Sundowns began the new Hollywoodbets Super League season on a positive note thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Ma-Indies Ladies FC at the Giyani Stadium in Limpopo. Goals from debutant Miche Minnies and Boitumelo Rabale were enough to hand The Brazilians an opening day victory.
Coach Jerry ‘Kappa’ Tshabalala deployed a strong team with new signings – Tiisetso ‘Bastos’ Makhubela, Miche Minnies, and Gabonnelwe Salome Kekana all handed their debuts in the season opener. Young midfield dynamo, Khunjulwa Mali who showed her class during the pre-season fixtures was also included in the starting line-up.
Banyana Ba Style began the game on the front foot with several attacking runs from Lelona Daweti who tested the opposition goalkeeper from close range in the opening passage of play. A few minutes after that, debutant Minnies grabbed Sundowns’ first goal of the season thanks to a fine strike.
Coach Tshabalala’s troops continued to apply the pressure with Melinda Kgadiete going close midway through the first half. Not long after, the Chloorkop-based side grabbed a second goal thanks to a well-taken penalty kick from Boitumelo Rabale.
That second goal sparked some urgency into the strides of Ma-Indies Ladies who conjured up a plethora of chances before halving the deficit just before the break. Andisiwe Mgcoyi who scored six times against Ma-Indies Ladies in the final game of last season was brought on at halftime for goalscorer Minnies, while Nonhlanhla Mthandi replaced Lelona Daweti.
Sundowns Ladies continued to dominate possession in the second half and even with the introduction of Rhoda Mulaudzi, Chantelle Esau, and Thalea Smidt for Khunjulwa Mali, Salome Kekana, and goalscorer Boitumelo Rabale respectively, Sundowns Ladies had done enough in the first half to seal the victory.
“Our opponents made the game quite difficult for us, but I must praise my team for their solid showing despite bouts of vulnerabilities. The goal they scored further gave them the belief that they could snatch something away from the fixture, but we showed our resilience once again. Our changes in the second half gave us that extra spine in key areas and I am glad that we held on to clinch an opening day victory,” stated Coach Tshabalala.
Kappa was also full of praise for the new signings who impressed in their first competitive outing for the club.
“As I said a few weeks ago, we acquired quality reinforcements during the pre-season and we saw a glimpse into their qualities during the game. There is more to come from them and I am happy with their respective debut performances,” concluded Kappa.
Up next for Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies FC is a clash against Golden Ladies.
Kby MaSandawana hope we are getting healed gradually and our rivals are still giving us hard time and so be it but we have something to show off even this year not to just play with nothing on your cabinet.
Our President and his son are very shrewd businessmen and I know next season we will come back more stronger and I feel sorry again for our rivals here in SA because we will reinforce stronger and it will be many more years to come without some trophies on their cabinet
Lastly my wish is for Caf to abolish the so-called away goal rule so that we can see a more offensive soccer all the time,teach our referees more about Var not this thing we saw when a referee took so long to come with a decision and I still stand to be corrected we were robbed by it in both legs.In Europe the Var shows all angle and if it was like that the referee would have seen that Jali didn’t tackle that player,sengiphetha bengicela ko Wisemen beke badlalise uMaraisane phela in a space of Zwane and they won’t regret.
Great team spirit from banyana BA style
Masandawana let’s not be despondent, of course we are all disappointed and I can assure you our players will be the most disappointed becoz they had worked so hard to try and position themselves to win this one and we all had that hope from the group stages performances. We just need to be a bit aggressive up front with Chamions league matches lets focus on effective football which is more results oriented and fancy football later. Better luck next time we trust in you, hope this year’s experience has taught us a lesson
I have a recommendation, maybe our team manager Peter Ndlovu will attest to this, there is a certain Prince Dube playing for Azam FC in Tanzania, that boy is a natural goal scorer, I believe he can complement Shalulile very well, he has pace, he can dribble and is a natural sniper, lethal with both feet… food for thought,,, just watch his videos on YouTube and see what I am talking about if he can have the supply from the quality midfielders we have I can tell we will score a lot of goals… if our coaches read this please just watch him and see what I mean