Mamelodi Sundowns shared the spoils at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after being held to a 0-0 draw by Chippa United FC in a tight affair in the DStv Premiership.
The Brazilians could only pick up a point away to Chippa in their first away league match which was played in Port Elizabeth. Both teams failed to create any goal scoring chances in their opening 20 minutes, however, the defending Champions were clear in their intentions as they continued to dominate in ball possession and territory.
It was an end-to-end start with the Chili Boys having the first attack on the ball heading into Downs half to give defenders Grant Kekana and Rushine De Reuck an early test in defense. Downs’ first contribution from the two center halves made good clearances from the hosts’ attempts to enter the Downs box.
With Masandawana searching for spaces to play the ball, full back Khuliso Mudau made great efforts on the right side of the pitch to deliver a dangerous ball in the box, however he was unfortunate to not connect the ball to the runner.
Aubrey Modiba then had a chance at Chippa’s goalie Ismail Watenga swinging in a spectacular volley that could’ve given Downs the lead with the tempo dropping after the half-hour but Downs continued looking for goal scoring opportunities before heading into the half time break.
The start of the second half saw The Brazilians take the game to Chippa United in an attempt to find the back of the net with the first clear chance at goal coming from Mothobi Mvala’s cross into the box to connect perfectly with Peter Shalulile who headed the ball into Watenga’s hands. Masandawana were forced to take shots from afar, with Neo Maema trying his luck from outside the box.
Sundowns looked more dangerous in the final third after the first 20 minutes of the second half and that was after a triple substitution was made, Kermit Erasmus, Thapelo Morena and Gaston Sirino made their way onto the pitch giving Downs more action in attack.
The high-tempo atmosphere was dampened by the the injury of Mudau, who had to be stretchered off by medical staff after picking up an injury on his hamstring.
The result means Sundowns have picked up four points from their two opening games of the league season. The next game for The Brazilians is a trip to KwaZulu-Natal to play against Golden Arrows in the MTN8 Cup Competition on the weekend.
This is how we lined up: D. Onyango, K. Mudau (58’ Morena), L. Lakay, R. De Reuck, G. Kekana, M. Mvala, H. Domingo (85’ Vilakazi), R. Coetzee, A. Modiba (58’ Erasmus), N. Maema (58’ Sirino), P. Shalulile (68’ Safranko).
Subs: K. Mweene, G. Sirino, T. Morena, B. Onyango, K. Erasmus, A. Jali, S. Mkhulise, P. Safranko, S. Vilakazi.
When are we going to score if we strike with one striker whereas other strikers are sitting on the bench or grandstand, why we bought Kutumela and put him on grandstand, our Wisemen were happy after we signed and praising him but look now he’s not playing.Mvala and Domingo are not giving us anything everytime Mvala do backpasses and Domingo is always falling down but our coachss keep on playing them.
Where are creative players like Jali,Kapinga and Sirino.
Maybe this draw is a blessing in disguise next they will field rite players like Mkhulise not this Domingo.
Spot on member ,the coahes are selecting wrong lineup since the start of the season
Maybe we made mistake as supporters by fighting for Manitoba to be the head coach this guy is like Ramaposa he is afraid to take decisions how can they play 8 new players no creativity in the middle some were running like headless chickens. These coaches want to do away with Pisto style. Winning mentality. I guess we are going down
The problem here we must first insult these coaches to see the obvious that u can’t keep on excluding Jali& expect a great performance.Again Kutumela scored 12 goals last season but u r putting him at home no gal.How does it happen that 3 people agree that a goal getter must stay at home & listen to a coach giving us stupid analysis at the end of the game.We r very dependable on Shalulile&Zwane which means if they don’t score no one will score.We r still continuing with the inconsistency of when last season was about to b finished.But u can’t leave Erasmus,Sirino, Kutumela,Jali for the better part of the game & expect a round of applause from us forget about that.I believe if it’s going to be like that we need an Evidence Makgoba kind of a player &a kind of Tariq Filies kind of a defender but defending with small players at the back considering the situation in Caf champions league.In the middle of the park we need someone very hungry & creative to supply for Shalulile &Safranko but expect a miracle from strikers knowing very well that there was no telling ball for them to score or have a shot on goal leaves a lot to be desired
Something must be done against these three coaches, our team is losing its style play. Why and why these three coaches have so much faith in Mvala, Domingo, Mudau, Safranko, and leaving on bench Jali, Sirino, Mkhulisi, Erasmus, Vilakazi, Kutumela ? Rhulani, the so technician coach, is killing our team with his stupid philosophy as he failed at Pirates, we can feel now the absence of Pitso, things are not really working well. Last season, we were playing good football as we continued with the philosophy of Pitso, but with this new system, we are down, do not fix something that is not broken.
Shaulile fought against 4 defenders alone with no support from other players,every season we building instead of correcting our short falls.We can’t win the champions league if we are struggling against the likes of Chippa with limited resources,I’m sure the highest paid player earns less than our lowest paid player.This is the reason why there is lots of interference in other teams,no sane owner can tolerate the nonsense those two coaches are doing.If you want to play defensive football buy more defenders not more offensive players.To management plz plz find us a proper coach and send those two assistants to MDC.
Not complaining bcoz we drew but bcoz of the overall performance of the team. Mngqithi said last season we drew games we were supposed to win and yet the same defensive that made us draw those games still continues,this only means one thing,we have two factions in the team,between the two coaches everyone wants to play his preferred players,you can see even in the post match and after the match interviews one game is this coach and another game is that coach,our beloved team is really operating like a Spaza shop.What do you expect when you put someone who was fired at both Pirates and Chippa?.The sooner management do something about this co-coaching thing the better.Against Amazulu we finished a game with one shot on target,last night the whole 1st half we never had a shot on target with the kind of resources at our disposal.At Downs you can,t say you have achieved by winning the league only bcoz any coach can win it hands down with team we are having and we can even win it without a coach.Domingo is a good player but he is struggling with the role assigned to him,b4 we was replaced he was playing good at a more advanced role.We are neither conceding nor scoring goals this pin point where the problem is but the blind coaches can’t see that,when Kompela is not around things are worse.If those two coaches don’t change their defensive mode or management do something about them then, we are out of the mtn8 as early as Saturday coz they are going to be defensive again planning to win the 2nd leg at home as if they are guaranteed win at home.
Excuse me MASANDAWANA… this so called coaches.. are insulting our great institution…then they will be complaining of not getting respect… from us….I STILL BELIEVE MNVALA IS NOT BETTER THEN OUR CAPTAIN….6 DEFENCE AGAINST CHIPPA…….RHULANI SIT DOWN”….MANQOBA KEEP QUIET…. YOU SHOULD BE LEADING BUT ALLOWING YOUR ASSISTANT TO RUN THE SHOW…..IF I MAY ASK WHAT WAS THE PLAN… SURELY YOU CAN TELL US WINNING THE GAME….WHO IS THE COACH AMONG YOU….IF IT’S A COLLECTIVE DECISION …IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT WHERE THIS TEAM IS GOING…. IT’S OK TO LOSE BUT NOT WITH A NEGATIVE APPROACH.. AGAINST CHIPPA…. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU…. YOUR TOO RELAXED…. THIS IS NONSENSE…….
our coaches are just inviting insults now . I am very disapointed in our coaches .
Mgqithi is talking about the absence of Zwane ,how many chances did we create against Amazulu with Zwane and how many shots on target did we have in that Amazulu game,so if he can get injured 4 the whole season means we are going to struggle all season long,what is the plan if your only trusted player is not around,besides Downs never relied on one player until now under this cowards of a technical team,.Truth be told these clueless coaches can make you hate this beautiful game of soccer.
Guys if keep Manqoba Sundowns will fall apart that that he never just destroyed when he reach in team he change whole from bad to worse Sundowns should give Kompela head coach position fail mantain foundation lay p by Pitso where Jali Kekena. MKHULIS.Makgalwa why change wining team our gud days are over
Mr Motsepe please help somebody is destroying our team, please lease help Sir. We are moving from better to the west.
Manqoba and Rulani are killing our players Jali,Kekana,Mkhuliseni,Makgalwe and Morena not excluding Alfoso,Motupa,Kutumela and fielding the ja baas players who do not play Mamelodi Sundowns play.These two coaches must be demoted to MDC and promote Suprise and Notoane or bring back Harris Chueu and Jersey Queen Legodi these guys Mike Ntombela guys who played and leaved Sundowns.
That ombination of Rivaldo and Mvala in the middle field will not take anyway! What creativity are we going to to get from these two players! They more about caution at the expense of offensive creativity! The coaches excluded Jali, Mkhulise and Sirino from the starting line and that crippled our team going forward! What i see about these coaches is thier obsession with destroying what Pitso did with the team! I think in the long run they want to get of the players that Pitso played with during his time with Sundowns! They want to create thier own team at the expense of players that had played regularly under Pitso! This is a dangerous move what they are doing! All the players should be given fair opportunities
Hardy Masandawana, without doubt the two coaches cannot be bad coaches overnight however their downfall in the las two matches played has been a wrong team selection. With the type of players that we selected for the midfield, there is no way that you can expect creativity and flair especially playing against teams that have low defensive block, like Chippa had. You need a balance between ball winners and ball players, for example offensively you need a vibrant players like Maboe, who works very hard to win and play the ball, Zwane and Mkhulise to play the ball and defensively you need Jali and Coetzee/Mvala to defend and win the ball. effectively you need a combination of Coetzee, Jali, Maboe, Mkhulise, and Zwane. and then you can attack with Shalulile with either/ Romeo/ Motupa/ Kutumela. This players are able to combine and break packed defence.Sirino is very selfish at times he does not pass the ball. That said, we are not privy to what is happening in terms of injuries/covid19 etc. So we can criticise and critic but we do not have all the facts. One other challenge is to field the majority of new players at once instead of blending them with those who are used to our style gradually , perhaps one or two to three new players on the field but not in one department , i.e defence or midfield or striking department. We need ball winners like Maboe and Jali which are often underrated at times but if you can check their mileage on the field you will find that they are always everywhere on the field. Anyway I respect everyone’s openion or views.
Playing many new players in a match you are setting them up for failure hence you need to bring one or two in a stable and balanced line-up. Why is Captain Keke not playing at all, has he suddenly become a bad player even for 60 minutes given his age. If coaches what a left attacker in their game plan, I support the idea of fielding Modiba instead of Sirino, however Modiba must be mobile and switch positions like Sirino , but I believe he is stronger and vibrant than Sirino any day.
These coaches are just useless and clueless and I think Benny can do a better job than this mediocre we getting from Manqoba and Rhulani.
They are just useless. How do you explain usage of this Safranko ahead of Gift Mothopa and Kutumela.