Mamelodi Sundowns were held to a 1-1 draw by Orlando Pirates when they battled for an upper hand in the first leg of the MTN8 semifinal on Saturday afternoon at the Orlando Stadium.
It is the hosts that had a cracking start to the game and posed the first threat, but Ronwen Williams came out of his mark to make an important save. Bafana Ba Style also tested the Buccaneers in the sixth minute through Tashreeq Matthews’ attempt that hit the net. Unfortunately, the offside flag was raised to deny him an opener.
Coach Miguel Cardoso was forced to make an early sub on the 15th minute after the captain, Themba Zwane, sustained a minor injury. Jayden Adams is the midfielder who came in for the skipper.
The first corner of the match produced the opener, and it was in favour of Masandawana. Marcelo Allende took the corner kick, and Teboho Mokoena’s free header found the back of the net in the 37th minute to break the deadlock.
Arthur Sales almost doubled Downs’ advantage, but the goalkeeper cleared it away. Sales then found the rebound, handed the ball to a Matthews who was in a better position to slot it in, but couldn’t get it right as the goalkeeper bucketed the opportunity. After 45 minutes of a titanic tussle between the two sides, the Pretoria-based side went to the interval with a goal advantage.
The Sea Robbers had the first action in the second stanza, but Williams managed to make a save. More danger loomed for Masandawana inside the area after miscommunication between the defenders. This led to a Pirates attempt that came from a rebound but sailed way over the bar to keep Downs ahead.
The Brazilians almost double their lead in the 57th minute, though Rayners who found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Unluckily for him, the keeper made himself big and blocked the ball with his body in front of the goal.
Williams was forced to come out and sweep at the back on the 73rd minute after a defence-splitting pass made by Pirates from their half. He managed to clear the ball with a long shot. Five minutes later, an error and a powerful pass at the back almost cost the visitors after Pirates intercepted the ball. Luckily, Williams cushioned the ball. The Soweto-based side came close again to leveling matters from the corner kick, but the effort hit the woodwork.
In the final stages of the match, after continuously knocking on the door, Pirates closed the encounter to level matters. This means the side to advance to the final round of the competition will be decided in the return leg of the semifinal next weekend in Atteridgeville.
How we lined up: Williams, Mdunyelwa, Cupido, Kekana, Modiba, Mokoena, Allende, Zwane ©, Sales, Rayners, Matthews.
Subs: Onyango, Lebusa, Lunga, Aubaas, Mkhulise, Adams, Mabena, Letlhaku, Shalulile.
Nice display of football but my worry is our defence especially Kekana,the guy is costing us big time he must be dropped and replaced by Mvala or Khoza when he comes back from Chan.
It seems our coach doesn’t want to reinforce the squad since he said Downs has got too many players,they bought Ndamane and loaned him back to TS Galaxy whereas we are thin at the back with too many games to play and He doesn’t want to sign I mean Tayners is alone upfront we need a prolific striker and a good playmaker or they’re waiting for Ramiro Vaca to be cleared by Fifa dropping company I really don’t know.
Downs are playing nice football what is missing is a good finisher,lastly,Sales you are making some of us eat humble pie boy I salute you big time.
I meant dopping company since he was being accused of taking banned substances (Vaca)
It was very clear that Pirates wanted to use speed on the side of Modiba, but the Imposter totally failed to read the situation. The Pirates coach probably watched the previous’ games between the 2 teams and came across the game where Saleng was roasting Modiba. When the Pirates coach introduced Moremi and Tashreeq got injured, it should’ve rung the bell to the Imposter that they’re going to overload Sundowns’ left’s side with Sebelebele and Moremi’s speed, but alas since he’s coaching with his marriage certificate, he failed to read the situation. My plea to management is to release Maseko, Mudau, Ribeiro, Shalulile and Lethlaku from that prison. They’ve had enough and they want to leave. Steve Barker is still playing the best football, even after losing his best players. The Imposter is not even creative, Basadien can play as a left central defender to cover for Modiba, but he’ll rather deploy the ineffective Lebusa there. Ntseki took Khoza and deployed him as a N0. 6, and the boy played so well. The team needs a proper No. 6 to release Mokwena to play as an 8 and assist going forward. It’s going to be a kong season with the Imposter, and I just hope Pitso will be on standby to come back and rescue the team again.
Good morning masandawana, good display yesterday but the coach let us down as he always do by playing mathews for 80min even though he is not giving us nothing and choose to play shalulile for 9min
Should have wrapped up the game in the first half or early second half.Poor finishing cost us the game.Lack of tactical astuteness from the technical staff also cost us the game,even before Pirates scored they overloaded our left back and the the technical team did nothing to remedy the situation.You can’t sign the best left back in the country and put him in the stands.We are thin upfront we need a lethal striker,we are also thin offensively,once Sales is replaced we are toothless.My main concern with our coach is that he can’t apply his mind instead he uses other people ideas.Modiba,Kekana, Mokoena and Allende are still playing the way they were playing during the past two coaches’ era, in fact nothing has changed,there’s no improvement.He lacks that element of surprise,the team is easily predictable.He found Modiba and Morena playing as converted wing backs he continued the trend ,Morena play as an offensive player at the national team because the coach uses his brain.If Mudau was available Modunyelwa would have been loaned out because the coach found other coaches not using him,we have skilful players like Nasri and good striker like Ighadaro just because other coaches didn’t use them he also does the same thing,he even said other coaches were not using Esquivel and he also didn’t use him,I hate a person who is lazy to think.Ilove the bravery from Pirates coach,he’s just unfortunate the results are not going his way but you can see what he wants to do,he wants to play fast forward football with young players,he wants to create healthy competition and want to show players that no one is indispensable.He team selection is unpredictable.Our coach apply one size fits all team selection despite of different opponents.He is over working some players eventually they will be tired before we reach half season.Coach God gave you brains use it effectively and efficiently.
Let me laugh,”coaching with a marriage certificate”Dalom,Down4ever,Kunene,I concur with u regarding ur analysis of the game.Lorch,Ighordaro,Esquivel r Sundowns players why weren’t retained if Mudau,Ribeiro r having their eyesight elsewhere.Benching Basadien 2 accommodate a lame failure like Modiba who can’t defend,head or tackle the ball leaves a lot 2 b desired.There’s a lot of questionably things at Sundowns.We r suffering bcoz of Kekana yet Mvala &Khoza r there why?Yesterday we lost Zwane what next who’ll replace him if Lethlaku&Mabena r not trusted 4 big games.We were put on the backfoot by Pirates in the last 20 minutes and had the referee added 2 minutes or so I can tell u Pirates was going to score.We r led by blind ppl at Sundowns,I mean 4 aimless substitutions what was that,I agree Cardoso mst take his marriage certificate and leave us in peace.Was bringing Fleming Berg at Sundowns a good cause,let’s see
We have problems all over the team including management,why keep unhappy players,we have over used Shalulile,he delivered us many trophies,how much did we buy him for and I think Esperance were going to pay u more than double of what we paid,considering his age and that he will be free to sign pre contract with a team of his choice in January,we will be the biggest losers. We have so unwise management,always when a player wants to leave us is a war,from the days of Zane Moos,Dolly,Zungu,Tau and now is Shalulile,Mudau and Ribeiro,Lorch also experienced the same problem.We could have sold those old players and use the money to buy young and cheap players.What is happening in our team is a shame and disgusting.We always defend our league with ease because we buy players to refresh the team,now we don’t sign players because coach doesn’t want big squad,the problem is not a big squad no, real problem is that the team is too big for the coach.
Leadership is about taking accountability for the poor display of the team. Lets not shift blame on emotions about players, we were tactically outclassed. We have supported this team.for.many years and we know when we not on par. We need to do better, and our substitutions, not the players, did not provide us anything.
Mix feelings Masandawana! News that Ribeiro is coming back, makes me think we are too obsessed with winning at the expense of the well being of players. This sets a bad precedence. It does not look right at. The president once said we should not be doing this. That was Dr Motsepe, but today the contrary is happening. It almost says to the players available thst they not good enough. On another matter, we cannot say Mabena $ kutlwano needs 6 months when the likes of Nkota, etc in other teams were good to play. This also does not sound right . Are we saying our development is below the level of our competitors? Sounds like an admission to me.