After an even start, the Buccaneers took the lead from a Kermit Erasmus header. Pirates’ winger Monnapule Saleng charged down on the right flank and managed to get past Aubreey Modiba to put a cutback to Erasmus who scored from close range.
After a cagey opening 20 minutes, Downs was the team with the most ball possession as they tried to find their way back into the game. Teboho Mokoena had a chance to pull one back for the home team with a long shot on target, however Siyabangena Mpontshane of the Buccaneers was alert to the attempt and made the save.
Gaston Sirino and Khuliso Mudau were both unlucky not to equalize for The Brazilians after the half-hour mark, Sirino pushed forward and put the ball in the box in the way of Marcelo Allende but was unfortunate to see the ball going out. Mudau put a cross into the box from the right side of the pitch but it was cleared by the defenders.
With the stakes so high for both sides, Bafana Ba Style were relentless in their efforts to restore their winning streak. As the clock hit 45 minutes, Themba Zwane was in action with Mokoena who took a shot from far but Mpontshane made yet another save.
Downs struggled to contend with their opponents’ high press throughout, as the half was coming to an end with only Erasmus’ goal separating both sides going into the break. Masandawana made immediate changes five minutes into the second half, Neo Maema and Gift Motupa came on for Sphelele Mkhulise and Gaston Sirino.
Maema made an immediate impact with his attempt at goal coming close to goal with the Pirates keeper coming to a standstill, but his shot went slightly wide past the posts. Mothobi Mvala was the next player to make his way off for Thapelo Morena as the hosts put in an effort to come back into the game.
The next chance fell Downs way, Modiba’s goal bound cross into the box net the crossbar and went out. The game began to heat up and more chances were coming the way of Sundowns with more play happening in the Pirates box, this time Allende’s shot was on target before the Pirates goalie came out of his line to make a fine save.
With less than 10 minutes left to play, the Buccaneers put in their second goal of the day and Masandawana fell further behind. Saleng struck home after receiving a long pass from Zakhele Lepasa. Downs reshaped at the back and started to attack the hosts again shortly with an opportunity from Motupa’s shot which hit the top of the goalpost. The Limpopo born star came close to goal again with a header but the goalkeeper was close to the action to make a save.
The referee added 4 extra minutes to be played, however it got worse for Bafana Ba Style with Saleng beating Rushine De Reuck at the back to put in a 3rd goal for the Soweto team.
This is how we lined up: R. Williams,k. Mudau, R. De Reuck, A. Modiba, G. Kekana, M. Mvala (65′ Morena), T. Mokoena, S. Mkhulise (49′ Maema), T. Zwane ©, G. Sirino (49′ Motupa), M. Allende.
Subs: D. Onyango, T. Morena, C. Mailula, A. Jali, L. Maboe, H. Domingo, G. Motupa, M. Lebusa, N. Maema.
Masandawana I’m very disappointed with the way sundowns play this season, it seems like we play position football with no threat to the box. we sign a lot of good players to be banch warmers and some on the stands why? that Moroccan defender for example when is nazir and shalulile? is high time the management let rulani and maqoba go and give Steve chance Caz like they don’t have clue on what they are doing. even if we won you see the kind of football they are playing is very poor
Even webmaster you can post it later we’ll wait we won’t sleep,we deserved to be beaten eintlik Bucs should have humiliated us by an avalanche of goals,you can’t play players like Mvala and leave skillfully players like Mhule,Kapinga and Ralani in a game against Pirates and expect to win.
A ruled out or injured player while he was at Downs Erasmus plays almost every games to his new team but to us he was injured which means this thing of Nassir that he’s injured is not true because earlier on we’re told he’s got a bout of flu.
Manqoba praised a Moroccan guy and Ralani,Mbule that are so good but come match day they’re seated on grandstand and field an arrogant annoying Zwane every time and he was lucky not to get a second yellow card. We got players but our main downfall is favoritism and oneday this singing after the game will stop and you know what will happen instead of that.
I cnt believe Lyle Lakay and Divine Lunga were axed in favour of this nonsense(MODIBA),and what was Mvala doing in the starting line up when u hv Jali???? and this thing of continuously playing Mokoena needs to stop cos he doesn’t offer any creativity in the midfield,we hv Mbule n Domingo who can do a far better job than mokoena……and lastly,I think Allende is NOT being utilized properly,he is an attacking midfielder NOT a striker,our coaches r playing players out of position yet there r players like Kapinga who not being given a chance…….I wont even mention the substitution of Sirino because I expected it even b4 da match started cos its like there’s a clause in his contact that says he mst be substituted even if he is playing well
The last time we really played well was when we beat Marumo Gallants 4-0 in Polokwane in November 2021. That was actually the last time I enjoyed watching my favourite. What has been happening since then and now is just undescribable. I’ve been saying all -along that one standards are dropping with each game and what Pirates did to us today was bound to happen, it was just a matter of when. We’ve been winning through sheer luck this season, and our luck was bound to run out. The commitment from players is just not there, and their fitness is also a suspect. The situation is compounded by the fact that those suspects will always be in the team to play irrespective. I’m not even angry with today’s results as I predicted it and I knew deep-down that we stand no chance of defending this cup, irrespective of who was goong to play
If we concede first it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll not win that game. Today’s team selection was not according to the game’s requirements. Good for ball retention but not putting opponents under pressure
You rejected Erasmus four weeks ago now is the same player who hurt you or even make you loose your job because think you knows too much and you undermine teams
Mina I dnt regret anything on my above comments,I will say it as it is,FAVOURITISM BY OUR COACHES IS OUR DOWNFALL,IT NEEDS TO STOP
Sundowns must fire Manqoba and Rulani now,they fooled each other by splashing millions of Rands just to bring that dwarf called Allende, now they are under pressure to field him no matter what the circumstances are.Terance Mashigo is cup tied maybe.But leaving Jali out of the game because he had a bad means our coaches are brain damaged.Botouil,Mbule,Shalulile,Nasir &Saavedra we just left at home to accommodate lo doti besiwubona izolo.Tebogo Mokoena is getting the jersey because of his little uncle Rulani,I’m just happy that Modiba got his red card and its an insult to other defenders to say Modiba is a defender.Its just so strange that Sundowns when they want to buy a player they just go to Supersport United, only Ronwan Williams is a great buy.Others r just adding numbers.But all in all its high time that Mngqithi and Rulani must go!!!!!!We have seen their comedy&its enough
@mfana I disagree with u on Allende,the boy is world class,bt if play him as winger/striker supplied by our useless wing backs in Modiba n Mudau with a useless and overrated Mokoena as your playmaker,then u r not gonna get the best of Allende……the problem with us is that we r leaving better players in the stands and on da bench(Domingo,Kapinga,Mbule,Mkhuma,Morena) and we r also getting rid of a better quality of players(Lakay,Makgalwa,Erasmus,Nascimento,Modise) to accommodate our favourites(Modiba,B.Onyango,Reyaard Pieters,Mudau,Mokoena,Kutumela)
One can’t help, but admire the discipline of this Orlando Pirates team. Even our supportera don’t know who to blame anymore. Everyone is blaming every player based on their favourites, a clear indication that we were just no match to this Buccaneers team. Irrespective of who turned out yesterday, we wouldn’t have made it to the finals, something that I alluded to even before our 1st leg in Orlando. The team is just low in morale, and the players appear unfit. There’s also a lot of ill-discipline creeping into the team.
We lacked a central defensive midfielder,Jali would have made a difference as well as Kapinga.
It is not correct to use insults on this platform to attack coaches.
Let’s leave coaching for coaches.
We shall win some. Football has no therefore. This loose will soon belong to history
I believe we are not frustrated by a loss but by the manner in which we lost the game and it comes to a boiling point whereby someone says things that ends up regretting.Sundowns doesn’t have the divine right to win every time but subjected to draw,lose&win & it happened yesterday that a lose was something that we gonna get.I do an introspection to myself now that are those that I commented above coming from a supporter or someone who just became destructive with no constructive criticism.I do apologize for the way I commented above and its not coming from someone who has been supporting the club for decades.My apologies to Allende & all the Yellow Nation,I regret everything that I said above it came out of anger and not football analysis.
I once said the problem with us is bad team selection, how can you start a big game like that with Mkhulise, and Mokoena, without Jali, Mkhulise is lucky to start ahead of many talented players there ,where is Ralani, Maboe,Mbule ,Nassir.Mudau and Modiba cost us the game yesterday, all the goals came as a result of their bad marking and lack of football knowledge, yet our tried and tested Morena is always on the bench, Lackey has been chucked away .Even Ngobeni can play better than Modiba.Modiba and Mudau allow crosses very easy, and they also are unable to defend crosses on the blind side, they ball watch.If we are serious about winning the Champions league, the two coaches must go coach our junior teams, Steve Kompela take the reigns and bring in Moriri and Teko Modise to coach the first team to more glory.These people are dismantling everything Pitso did with this team, Romeo was never a bad player, yet they sent him away.Maema a far better player than Mkhulise is kept on the bench, Motupa a proven goal poacher is always on the bench, not given enough chance Mxm.
We can’t every but the truth is,we don’t have a technical team.You can’t repeat the same team that struggled midweek,.Mvala couldn’t even trap the ball yet he was selected in this game,we needed a win to go to the final yet those idiots left Motupa and Mailula on the bench,you could see his immediate impact and at least Maema played well in a more advanced role,I agree with those who say Rulani is experimenting with our players.You can’t read soccer in the books but yo need to understand it hence Mamila is doing well at Chippa.We also have a blind management,they should have sacked these people long ago, you can tell that all is not well even the body language of players tells a story.Even a blind person can see that we have have factions in the team and that players are not selected on merit but by the association with Rulani or Manqoba.This is their third season but they have never won a game when we conceded first and this shows how awful those people are.We must appoint a new coach during the world break to be able to acquaint himself during that period,under those idiots our team is becoming weak with every game,they have weakened our team,we don’t even have a single player that I shining this season or a player we can sell abroad.Prevention is better than cure let’s us save a little that is left of our team by getting rid of those idiots.Can anyone stand and say we can win champions league under these people?
Really there’s something wrong with our Wisemen maybe they’re more educated than coaching because we always heard them talking about the so called terms low block,high press and data’s now Downs has become a tertiary institution.
Look at aMaZulu ,Maluleka plays his socks out and he was a man of the match but at Downs he was under the famous term “players ruled out” and I won’t be surprised if Nassir,Coetze are fit,even the CEO of Chippa is far better than our Wisemen because our coaches are obsessed with possession than scoring.
My friend once told me if there was a debate for coaches our would coaches would win that competition hands down and that technically and tactically they are number 16.Every thing about them is negative,recently our one stupid said they are planning to come second in the groups of champions league,can a normal or wise person plan like that?.It seems the only people who care more about this team is the supporters coz the management sees nothing in how the team is playing and how the team selection is made.You can see there different camps in the team,players like Morena,Kapinga, Motupa and Ngobeni don’t belong to any camp.W even heard the reason Lakay was no longer playing and eventually loaned out is because he was leading players who were not satisfied on how the team is playing and team selection.If you are a play you can’t be satisfied playing along players like Mvala who takes more than one attempt to trap the ball.If we can go to champions league with these coaches I don’t see us passing group stages.You just can’t buy state of the art passenger plane ahd hire a helicopter pilot to operate it.Those coaches have zero football brains.
Maluleka when he was at Sundowns he was always injured, Erasmus was also injured so in actual fact who is fooling who, the coaches are lying about telling us players are injured? These two ex players of Downs are always fit in other clubs…
I heard that even Peter is not injured just he is awol for two weeks no one knows ukuphi…
I fully agree on the morale of the players. One can clearly see that something is wrong. When I compare our games to other team’s, one notice a big difference in terms of the fitness and the will to win a game. There’s no life in our games, I find our games very cold, and sometimes it feels as if I’m watching corpses playing. I don’t know if the players are doing it deliberately to sabotage the “Wisemen” and get them fired.
The biggest problem of Sundowns is selection seems coach and coach has his own favorite player, but who favour Mvala and Modiba i think is fool man… Mokoena is not the one was playing at Supersport and given to much time yet he is not delivering anything… These three Wiseman failed on selection they need to change their attitude and stop want to prove something.. Treat players equal and stop lying that players are injured yet are not… This game was sold by one of them… Yes we know we won’t win every game but selecting like this is not ayoba and we don’t want to see that Mvala any more
Yellow Nation my biggest Disappointment was starting a game without striker Zwane Allande and Gaston none of them fit the roll of striker Since I know Sundowns always have strikers and you can not experience new formation in that kind of game .Gift and Cassius were sitting on the bench. If i was a Couch I could have play Morena on the left cause of his speed and marking to stop that boy .Cause Modiba was targeted Another thing Modiba and Modau they can not push forward all the times and most of the teams they target them and Coaches they are stubborn .As it stand we only play with 2 defenders kekane and Rushine .I think the Coaches are more comfortable now they want to fire themselves
Erusmas was given more opportunity at Sundowns but He never produce and Shalulile was begging the goals only player I cry for is Gift is not been given a chance even when Shalulile is not available is still not given a chance
How I wish I was related to any of the sundowns players, just to ask them, are these players really injured ngoba it’s clear la ukuthi these coaches are lying to us. And I know the players are scared to come out and say no coach I’m not injured, you just not playing me period. That being said the management must then come in here and stop these lies
I can’t agree more, I don’t understand why Serino was taken out. Why Gift did not start the game or put Thapelo as your 9.
I don’t know how I feel but very disappointed with out technical team.