Mamelodi Sundowns were held to a goalless draw by the Democratic Republic of Congo side, AS Maniema Union in the Group B opener of the CAF Champions League on Tuesday night at Loftus Versfeld.
The team looked freshened up, with coach Manqoba Mngqithi making six changes to his previous starting squad, introducing Malibongwe Khoza, Thapelo Morena, Kobamelo Kodisang, Erwin Saavedra, Divine Lunga and Arthur Sales.
The hosts wanted to assert their dominance very early in the encounter as they threatened to break the deadlock through Lucas Ribeiro’s curling effort, but the visiting goalkeeper was forced to make a save. Marcelo Allende also looked to open the scoring through a volley inside the box, but his effort rolled a few inches wide.
Masandawana had only intentions to score, not giving Maniema Union a chance to take the ball to Ronwen Williams’s half. Just a few minutes into the half-hour mark, Teboho Mokoena came close after he fired a shot from a set-piece that was tipped over the crossbar by the goalie. Despite the many clear-cut chances created by the home side, the two teams went to the break deadlocked at 0-0.
Sales had a big chance in the early minutes of the second stanza but his effort hit the Maniema Union wall from range, after he was set up beautifully by Allende.
The DRC-based side began to gain confidence and pulled some threatening chances that had the supporters on the edge of their seats. From a corner kick, the visitors almost took the lead after the ball was received in the farpost. The effort, however, hit the crossbar to keep the score at 0-0.
With resilience, Bafana Ba Style continued to look for a goal but Maniema Union tightened the defense to ensure no goal goes past them, although Allende managed to almost turn things around for his side with a shot that touched the crossbar before the full-time whistle. Both sides put up a fight especially in the closing stages of the match but nothing separated them, as the match ended goalless.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Khoza, Mokoena, Kekana, Lunga, Morena, Kodisang, Saavedra, Allende, Sales, Ribeiro.
Subs: Onyango, Modiba, Maema, Aubaas, Mkhulise, Mudau, Maseko, Mvala, Shalulile.
Downs don’t have a prolific striker it’s only Rayners let’s sign two or three strikers in January not middlefielders or wingers we have enough players there so as defenders.
Sometimes I ask myself did Keagan hit by a train or what because since he bought him he’s on injury list of players and I wish Mkhulise can sign a pre contract with other team in January because he’s waisted at Downs and you’ll hear Manqoba keep on praising him everytime he’s on postmatch interviews but come match day he’s always on the bench,lastly some players need to be released permanently from our team players like Maboe,Lebusa,Nku and Shalulile to be loaned not forgetting Maseko that guy disappointed me a lot.
Muzi Kunene I rest my case on Mngqithi the way I protected him and vouched 4 him 2 b head coach.I must confess that am very disappointed, day by day Manqoba is a true plumber of note.Its like its his 1st time at Sundowns.Even if he rotates the team he ensures that Mkhulise doesn’t receive a single second of the game or let alone a minute bt instead will bring Mudau a fullback how would that change the complexion of the game when we needed 2 score a goal.We need an aggressive striker in a type of Ighordaro,or rather Nasir is better than Sales I was disappointed by the performance of Sales yesterday in every aspect of the game,passing,trapping &even shooting.Another question is Lethlaku is also tired that he wasn’t even on the bench?Mngqithi is very weak,quiet &lack a backbone 2 stick by his decisions.If he wants to aerial duels in corners Khoza,Mvala, Johannes r there,especially in continental games.Mngqithi is all over the place hay hay..
For the first time this season what I can say I don’t see Manqoba giving something better than this performance we are experiencing now,Mfana I’m also the one who was protecting him but now I doubt him big time.
How come a coach always complaining on postmatch interviews about certain individuals who didn’t come to part or played well during the games whereas he got plenty of time to tell those individuals to pull up their socks or replace them while the game is playing.The problem with our coach he trusts himself too much with a bit of arrogance now he’s full of confidence that we will come back on our away games and I don’t see us beating those two Morrocan giants on their backyard even that Maniema will beat us in Drc.
He’s too confident even on mtn semifinal in first leg he kept on saying let’s relax it’s a first half the second half is coming we will beat them and he’s the first coach who won the mtn trophy.
Onething he’s good at is analysing the opponents I’m sure he even knows the groundsmen,securities and the people that are working at the canteen for the opposition teams.Lastly someone few months back complained about our physical training methods of why our players are always injured and they take too long to come back now I concur with him on that,look at Nku,Johannes and Lorch is always injured something needs to be done about the above. Manqoba you make Rhulani fans to celebrate now after we fought for you what a disappointment you’re giving us.
My personal opinion is,i think our anger and frustration are misdirected towards the coach when the elephant in the room is our management.They demoted Manqoba because of poor perform and unconvincing results.What did he do post his demotion to warrant his promotion? The poor coach never complained and never said he wanted to be the head coach again,they just decided to promote him based on what? Season after season they sign very expensive players ignoring the talents at our disposal and as a coach you are compelled to play an expensive player to please management who bought him.We end up losing good players because we don’t give them enough time to settle and gel.We were so impatient with the likes of good players like Mbule and Nasir and we also don’t want to give a chance to a good striker in a Ighadaro. The same patience given to Shalulile and Sale should be given to other players.Our management needs to introspect because they are gradually destroying our team.
Downs4ever I agree with u in every way I mean Sundowns is chasing Jayden Adams 4 what really.We shipped out Allan we bring Johannes we freeze him on the bench. We had Mohamme &ignored his potential we bought Tiwani 4 what really.Moloisane a product of Sundowns bt we went all out 2 fight 4 Grant Kekana.We r having a gem in Mabena bt we brought a person who just uses his speed than his brain Maseko.At some point we shouldn’t b critics bt the decisions by management r a cause of our frustrations.
It seems like the world have caught up with us, it’s easy to now beat Sundown, simply apply low block and hit us with a counter and we fall into this the entire time, Our Technical team needs to ask themselves if we need to always be the ones unlocking the opponent all the time, cant we not apply the same approach when playing against such opponents ? Cant we also apply a low block, and hit them with a counter? Yanga FC did this with Rhulani and we struggled to beat them home and away and they caught us on a counters, Esperance did the same and we lost to them home and away, now recently Stellenbosch, TS Galaxy, Magesi and Madiema and we struggled to beat them.