A lopsided 4-1 victory has seen Mamelodi Sundowns grab all points on offer against Galaxy when they played hosts on Saturday evening at the Lucas MoripeStadium.
It only took 57 seconds for the hosts to break the deadlock. It was Peter Shaluliewho who slotted the ball inside the box from a beautiful flick he received from IqraamRayners. Six minutes later, Rayners, who assisted Shalulie’s goal found the back of the net to give Downs a two-goal advantage. Marcelo Allende had made a swift pass to Rayners who turned and hit the target.
Three minutes later, Galaxy found the back of the net to reduce Downs’ advantage after getting the ball to go past Jody February. In the next few minutes, Galaxy played early balls inside the box and they had numbers that saw them creating good scoring chances but were not getting it right.
Just before the thirty-minute mark, Bathusi Aubaas was fouled dangerously and immediately needed medical attention, which forced coach Miguel Cardoso to make an early substitute, introducing Teboho Mooena into the match. The dangerous foul on Bathusi led the referee to give marching orders to Victor Letsoalo of Galaxy.
In the 37th minute, Shalulile came close to scoring but his chance was blocked. Luckily, Jayden Adams found the rebound and thrashed the ball into the tongue of the net to make it three for his side at the break.
Two minutes into the second stanza Rayners scored his second goal of the encounter. Adams made a beautiful pass to Morena who found Rayners on the back post. Rayners tucked the ball inside the net to extend Masandawana’s lead. An acrobatic effort from Shalulile almost saw Bafana Ba Style making it five goals but he just didn’t get it right as the ball went over the bar.
A triple change was made by coach Miguel, introducing Kobamelo Kodisang, Arthur Sales, and Kutlwano Letlhaku for Lucas Ribeiro, Allende, and Rayners. In the late stages of the match, the trio made a bit of an impact. Letlhaku was also seen coming close to goal from the right flank but his shot was tipped away by the keeper.
In the closing stages of the match, Downs was forced to play with ten men after Thapelo Morena picked up an injury that took him out of the match. With all five substitutions used up, the hosts were unable to make a change. They were able to hold on to the comfortable 4-1 lead which Was enough for them to grab the maximum points.
How we lined up: February, Khoza, Aubaas, Suarez, Morena, Allende, Adams, Tiwani, Ribeiro, Rayners, Shalulile ©.
Subs: Tshabalala, Lebusa, Modiba, Mokoena, Mkhulise, Kodisang, Sales, Letlhaku, Maseko.
Congrats for the win masandawana, however that central pairing of Khoza and Suarez almost cost us big time, lack of speed to Khoza is a big problem, perhaps he can be tried in the midfield otherwise we will suffer against speedy opposition especially when we press high.
Great game of football to watch, even though both teams have had no time to rest. TS Galaxy is fast becoming a rival for us, they’re clearly not scared of us and they always go toe-to-toe with us. Marcello Allende’s game has greatly improved, he was my MOTM against both Gallants and TS Galaxy, I think the presence of Jayden Adams is helping him a great deal. I was also impressed by Aseko Tiwani in both Marumo Gallants and TS Galaxy’s games. The boy is improving with every single game, he’s not that fast but somehow he looks difficult to beat. He’s still very young and there’s still much room for improvement. If Shalulile can learn to calm down sometimes, he would’ve beaten that Nomvete’s goal scoring record by now. The guy is so unnecessarily in a hury all the times, which has led to him missing simple chances at times. All the best to the boys in their next 2 games. Should we win against Sekhukhune and Chiefs, it’ll be so difficult for Pirates to catch up with us. I’m just happy that Sekhukhune also played over the weekend and they’ll be tired just like us.