Mamelodi Sundowns return to Absa Premiership action tonight and have travelled to Port Elizabeth to face a tricky opposition in Chippa United.
Kick-off is at 7.30pm at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, and coach Pitso Mosimane will look to continue where the Brazilians left off in their opener against their Tshwane rivals SuperSport United following a 2-0 victory.
Downs are still licking their wounds somewhat having returned from Congo-Brazzaville at the weekend after their CAF Champions League preliminary round clash away to AS Otoho, where they were beaten 2-1 and captain Hlompho Kekana was sent off.
While disappointed to have suffered defeat, what will boost Sundowns ahead of the return leg next week is the crucial away goal scored by Thapelo Morena.
But Mosimane will have to park the focus on that game for now and try to get the job done against Chippa, who often play thrilling football and are looking for their first win of the new season after a goalless draw against rookies Stellenbosch FC in their opening match.
Downs faced the Chilli Boys three times last season – twice in the Absa Premiership as well as the opening round of the Nedbank Cup.
In the first encounter, the Brazilians were narrow 1-0 winners at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in October last year and completed the double in April when Chippa visited Loftus Versfeld, a five-goal thriller Downs edged 3-2 to get a tighter grip on the title.
But coach Clinton Larsen’s men got one over us in the Nedbank Cup to win 2-1 in a highly entertaining fixtures in PE.
I’m very disappointed at our General Manager Yogesh Singh for revealing our intention of wanting Billiat back to the media that alone can cause our negotiations with Chiefs to collapse because this thing was taken care by both Chairmen with highly regard.
If We loose Khama I won’t forgive you mina I need that boy big time and I don’t care how much we will pay for him because the money is for the President if he wants him back let it be who am I to refuse that,hope Chiefs will not stop him from rejoining us again because of Yogesh,Kby forever.
Haa this boy Seabi is playing fantastic football he reminds me of Harris Cheoeu,ya sithengile laphaya.
Whoever recommended da signing of Seabi needs to be applauded
You right member, was also quite impressed, good prospect indeed. As for the game we were unlucky, good game though & the boys look fresh.
I was very impressed by Madisha’s performance even though he scored an own goal,he marked both Rhulani n Lerato Manzini out of the game
That is football. Days are never the same. It was an entertaining league match, early games are always tricky a bit, we were indeed unlucky , I heard the coach taking the blame and also heard Vila taking the blame, yeah !At the end of the day that is football, it just was not meant to be, anything can happen in football, a 1nil victory is never safe, we just need to score goals and wrap up games early. Winning goals must not always look beautiful, after winning the game then score those beautified goals, they will always give a good summary of the game. That lead was so near to victory yet so far, we are hopeful things favor us next time. Seabi is getting there, he will do well in the coming days.
The team played well generally! Even Madisha despite conceding an on goal but he had a good game generally. We were very unfortunate not to score a second. I think Vila had the best chance of the game and unfortunately he could not convert but the team played well for the duration of the game. Seabi had a good game on debut. He is tall but he seems to use his feet very well and his reading of the game was excellent. We must win against Celtic on Saturday! Pitso needs to have the MTN in his bag for a complete sweep of cups in his tenure at Sundowns.