Mamelodi Sundowns were forced to dig deep with a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Stellenbosch FC in their Absa Premiership match on Wednesday evening.
Coach Pitso was forced to ring the changes to his squad with fixture congestion and niggling injuries playing a part. Kennedy Mweene, Nicholus Lukhubeni, Rivaldo Coetzee, Tiyani Mabunda and Wayne Arendse all returned to the Starting XI.
Stellies had the games first real chance on the five minute mark as Waseem Isaacs sent Ryan Moon through on goal, the striker rushing his effort, missed the target.
The visitors eventually broke the deadlock with ten minutes remaining of the first half after Moon headed home a pin-point Marc van Heerden cross.
Coach Pitso Mosimane looking to get back into the game introduced Keletso Makgalwa for Ali Meza at the start of the second half.
The Brazilians piled on the pressure and it was Themba Zwane who managed to pull Downs back into the game. Mogamad De Goede brought down the elusive forward inside the box before Zwane stepped up to level matters from the penalty spot.
Stellies skipper, De Goede was given his marching orders 20 minutes from time following a two-footed tackle on Coetzee which left the centre-back unable to continue. Coetzee was stretchered off and had to leave the stadium on crutches.
With five minutes to go, Sphelele Mkhulise opened his league account for the season with a neat finish, running onto a sublime through ball from Zwane, as the Brazilians took the lead.
Downs then netted the third goal in stoppage time when Makgalwa’s well placed shot beat De Jong into the bottom corner to claim all three points for the Brazilians.
Mamelodi Sundowns (57′ Zwane, 85′ Mkhulise 90’+5 Makgalwa) 3-1 Stellenbosch FC (35′ Moon)
Line Ups:
Sundowns: Mweene, Lakay, Lukhubeni, Madisha, Mabunda, Coetzee, Arendse, Vilakazi, Mkhulise, Zwane, Meza.
Subs: Pieterse, Affonso, Lebusa, Ngcongca, Makgalwa, Maboe, Ngoma.
Stellenbosch: De Jong, Mobbie, Van Heerden, De Goede, Mthethwa, Awono, Zungu, Matsi, Rayners, Isaacs, Moon.
Subs: Langeveldt, Du Preez, Skelem, Ndlovu, Motsogi, Robertson, Franco.
Thanks coach for substituting one defensive midfielder to give the team better combination going forward in the middle. Some games, we don’t need 2 defensive midfielder cause often teams a playing defensive football when playing with Sundowns. Weldone boys, happy that Themba is back, we missed you player.
3 points in the bag. We slowly getting there. On the game itself we were poor in the first half, we managed only 1 shot at goal. I hope Coach Pitso had realized that we cant play Mabunda and Coetze in the middle.
Coetze must compete with Madisha at the back.To win a game you need to dominate and control the midfield. We were outplayed by the team sitting on the bottom of the lig. Playing Mkhulise in the middle made all the differences. We were more aggressive and we pushed more forward. our MDC boys are making me proud. thanks Coach Pitso for giving them game time
The first goal was dug very deep indeed, it needed football brains, people who understand where they are at certain moments, its very easy for such when you are a predictable defender, some tackles that are always showing to be dangerous and people are always afraid of such are bound to act to their safety. At that time the defender decided not to act as was expected of him, but the action had to continue so fast, because all players saw the lines and knew possible judgements. At least we benefited also for the first time from that scenerio of a mistake. It is true .Its poor officiating that we talked about for many weeks, should it now be taken serious because Sundowns benefited? A hand ball was not charged and Sundowns should have gotten a penalty instead Arendse was charged and given a card wrongly. All that is bad officiating even if we won. But people expect Pitso to say what? to complain about officials again?He must just keep quiet, He spoke and people never took him seriously. Is it Pitso who was refereeing?Help the referees , making them better is the only solution