Mamelodi Sundowns beat Chippa United by two goals to nil with goals scored by Lebohang Maboe and Gaston Sirino. The win was the ninth of the season for The Brazilians with no defeats registered to close off the first half of the season on top with thirty-three points after fifteen games. Coach Manqoba Mngqithi spoke about the performance of the boys in the clash against the Chilli Boys and said “It is one of those games where our planning and preparations matched what we thought, we created a lot of good moments in the game which should have given us more goals. I feel like Madisha did not want us to score more than two goals as we were celebrating his life. I don’t recall a game this season where we created so many chances”.
The game saw a welcome return to fitness for a number of players who have been out with injuries and medical reasons.
“It was encouraging to see Ricardo [Nascimento] back, AJ [Andile Jali] starting after a while, [Sphelele] Mkhulise back and also welcoming Rivaldo [Coetzee] back from his absence. It is nice to see the players back in numbers. Ever since I have been at Sundowns I have never seen the club playing so many players halfway through the season, so far I think we have played more than thirty players”.
Lebohang Maboe scored the opener on the day and this was his first for the season, Coach Manqoba Mngqithi opened up about his versatility and emphasised that “I always say that in life you must be a good person before you are a coach or a player and Lebo is one of those boys, well-raised and his attitude is unbelievable. We as coaches did not want to play him as a right-back, it was just circumstance. He works very hard and is intelligent and as an eight he has the right intensity. I am very encouraged and any coach would be happy to work with the boy and is always willing to fight and never complains”.
Masandawana take a break from the DStv Premiership action this week as they will be out to defend their Nedbank Cup title as they take on Stellenbosch FC.
It is not only for this game to honor Madisha, but our players missed scoring goals in almost all our games. This costed us many games in especially those ended up with draw. It is something that our technical team should work hard on to avoid problems for our championship at the end of the the season.