Tashreeq Matthews, Iqraam Rayners, Lucas Ribeiro and Sphelele Mkhulise’s goals earned Mamelodi Sundowns an explosive 4-1 victory over Marumo Gallants at Loftus Versfeld on Tuesday night.
The Brazilians started very brightly and were ahead just nine minutes into the game. It is all thanks to Matthews who made a beautiful finish to open the scoring for the hosts. With 11 clear-cut chances, Masandawana kept hold of the ball possession, trying to get as many goals as possible.
A threatening chance came from Lucas in a scramble inside the danger area with Marcelo Allende trying to get it through, but they couldn’t extend their lead. Another big chance came from Allende but it went over the bar.
A breakthrough finally came for Masandawana in the final minutes of the first stanza through Rayners. The ball started with Lucas who made a beautiful pass in front of Matthews. Matthews sped up to the ball, crossing it to Rayners who thunder bolted it to the tongue of the net. They went to the break with two goals up.
Ribeiro resumed the second half with a goal to make it three. Bafana Ba Style continued with their dominance as they looked for more goals. Allende had another big chance in front of goal but Gallants’ Daniel Akpeyi blocked it with his face. After knocking on the door for a while, Mkhulise found the fourth goal for Masandawana to extend the lead.
The opposition created plenty of chances in the final stages of the match but were struggling to get it right. They were awarded a penalty but shot stopper, Ronwen Williams denied them a goal. Eventually a goal came to close off the game with a 4-1 scoreline.
How we lined up: Williams, Lebusa, Coetzee, Kekana, Morena, Tiwani, Modiba, Allende, Ribiero, Matthews, Rayners.
We won on Tuesday but an update is on Thursday and there’s a big game on Saturday but no hype that we must support our team in numbers at FNB.When we r in mid 21st century Sundowns editors r taking us back 2 dark ages why d we have technology in our country webmaster?A great result indeed & a 3 good fat points let’s go 2 FNB now &suffocate these noisemakers in their own backyard and clip those wings so ppl stop thinking they r flying when they r still crawling.Mngqithi I observed one thing u were winning by 4 goals to nil but u weren’t enjoying the game bcoz its like u told everyone 2 go and play with objective.Substitutions Rivaldo out Maboe in Zwane-Ribeiro no reason 2 eject Tiwani.Then Gallants were all over u like a rash&were like in a wrong turn.And again the performance of Allende left a lot 2 b desired.Lets hope on Saturday you’ll analyze the game and bring ppl who’ll change the complexion of the game.And again if we lost Sirino why Ighordaro is scoring goals 4 other teams but no Sundowns?Mngqithi and Rhulani r suffering from the same sickness its remedy its still 2 b identified.But anyway well done to the boys and congratulations my coach its no use of always complaining when the objective is 2 c Sundowns winning thanks again coaches 4 instilling confidence 2 the boys and good luck on Saturday. Best wishes 2 everyone associated with Sundowns
Very good game until we made substitutions.Loved the intensity and the pace we played with.My biggest concern is that we have a very weak two central defenders pairing.One day we are going to be hammered with those two as our preferred central defenders,mark my words.Thank you technical team for good job,just fix the central defence pairing then we’ll be a well oiled machine.Just keep the Rulani Mokoena fc in the stands until they apologise publicly.We don’t need them, they need us,we won the games convincingly without them and lost games with them.Some players are idiots,for instance Mudau never smelled a winner’s medal b4 coming to us, even Mokoena came to us in January and in May he was league champion.The Rulani they’re crying for was nothing b4 coaching Downs,he was loaned out by Bucs and fired by Chippa.It took him more than 40 games to lose his first league game with us,but it took him only 2 games to lose his first league game,read between the lines.Even the Pitso people are praising never won a league before coming to us and also never won a league after leaving Downs,read between the lines again.Players like Mphahlele and good players like Billiat and Castro never smelled a cup after leaving us.Some idiots of players should learn from others mistakes,they should know that Sundowns will continue to win cups without them and they are nothing without us.Mighty Downs have a system in place for success in place we don’t need an individual to be successful but individuals need us to succeed.
Cha wayibeka Mfowethu abiding kutolikwa ngeke size ngabantu abafika izolo and another thing our fellow Downs supporters they always complain even we won maybe I don’t know soccer.
You will hear them complaining about the goal we conceded as if the opposition just came to be slaughtered and we mustn’t forget that those opposition teams are our fellow competitors not that they are amateurs. Madrid won by 3-2 on Wednesday even though they have the best attacking strike force in the whole Europe so who are we to complain,maybe tomorrow we can win by small margin because Chiefs are also competitors but you’ll hear people complaining as if our previous coaches were winning by avalanche of goals most of the time,some are still crying about thousand passes with one nil scoreline what a shame on them,lastly mina since Manqoba took the reigns I’m always singing my lovely song which says “amafejefeje izinto ezikhala kahle”prove them wrong Brilliant mfana wase Mzimkhulu we are fully behind you,Kby forever
Manqoba was badly exposed tactically yesterday. He clearly had no answers to Zebbies 2nd half total dominance. Lebusa and Kekana must be the worst central defence pairing in the history of the team. Kekana can’t even run with the ball at his feet 🦶🏾, and we therefore can’t even start the attack from the back. Unlike our defence, Zebbies defence was coming at us like a wave, in particular Inacio and Cross. We nearly lost the game from the bench, and we must thank the referee for saving us the blushes. Replacing Ribeiro, Zwane and Mathews was a bad tactical move which allowed Zebbies to come at us in full force. Modiba, Mkhulise and Shalulile were just wasteful substitutes. Modiba should play in the wing and not in the central midfield as he’s wasteful and give away ball possession cheaply. We need Tebogo Mokoena in the position that Modiba is being played in. Mokoena is not a holding midfielder, he should be played just ahead of Rivaldo, who’s more suitable for that holding midfielder position.
Downs 4 ever wena nami ngathi sibona into efanayo always I mean guys we can’t nurse or always sympathy to Shalulile as if we borrowed him when he was scoring goals for us,that’s what he was employed for and now the guy is so poor I even feel embarrassed to watch him,the fact is he must be loaned like other loanees and bring back Ighodaro from aMaZulu in January ngeke phela sesithule kakhulu ilo Shalulile ngathi oloyiwe,yesterday I thought Manqoba will brought Kodisang and Lorch to harass the defence of Chiefs but he chose otherwise and they were coming at us like hurricane thanks to Ronwen for saving us and a friendly trminder to Manqoba even though we fight for him what he must know there’s someone that’s waiting to take over and you might not go to Club World Cup just wake up and smell the coffee baba Downs head coaching position is wanted by many big coaches don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I really thought Mnqithi is going to change this team for good, but after watching yesterday’s game I now have my doubts, but I’ll give him some more chances to correct his mistakes. Between Lebusa and Kekana he needs to sacrifice one defender for either De Reuck or Johannes, even Mali can do a better job. We were totally outplayed in the 2nd half, and we got assistance from the worst referee ever, the same referee who robbed us in the Nedbank Cup against Pirates 🏴☠️. I don’t understand how the guy got the referee of the season award. He clearly robbed Zebbies there, but I don’t have sympathy for them, as they’ve also robbed us a lot of time previously.
Most coaches are stupid,they sacrifice their job and opportunity to feed their family by favouring certain players.The very same mistake Manqoba is doing with his obsession with useless Lebusa and Kekana is the same obsession Rulani had with Mvala which ultimately cost him his job.Mudau can do well as central defender then we have Morena or Mudunyelwa as right backs.I don’t know which game our technical team was watching,replacing Zwane and Costa nearly cost us,because Modiba and Mkhulise were playing for Chiefs against us and Shalulile is blunt and toothless.Offensively we were very good in the first half and with football we are playing upfront we will murder teams if we can bring back Ighadaro in January.We need to stop to be in denial Shalulile is finished,we need a young,fresh and hungry Ighadaro.