A last-minute winner from Marcelo Allende ensured that Mamelodi Sundowns emerged victorious over AmaZulu FC after an action-packed encounter at Loftus on Sunday afternoon.
The match started at a high tempo, with Masandawana setting up camp in the Usuthu half early on and dictating proceedings from there on with their passing and movement. After nearly a quarter of an hour with little action in front of goal The Brazilians had their first chance in front of goal when Teboho Mokoena played a through ball to Themba Zwane who charged down on goal, after beating the covering defenders Mshishi’s strike thundered off the crossbar in what would set the tone for a difficult time in front of goal for Downs.
The highlight of the first half came at the other end as goalkeeper Ronwen was called into action not once but twice as he made a double save from strikes from Gabadinho Mhango and Sandile Khumalo. The first half came to a close with the two sides on level terms and Downs heading into the changeroom without a shot on target.
The second half started in a similar vein to the first with Bafana Ba Style dominating proceedings however AmaZulu were determined to grow into the game. Khuliso Mudau made the block from the shot that came in from Keagan Buchanan before Ronwen was called into action a few minutes later to save another Buchanan effort.
The technical team looked to the bench early on and made a triple substitution early on in the half, with Neo Maema, Marcelo Allende and Thapelo Morena making their way onto the pitch. Morena was straight into the action as he had a chance seconds after coming on, with a glancing header that flashed across the face of goal.
The final fifteen minutes saw Masandawana hand a debut to new signing Terrence Mashigo as the coaches looked to make tactical tweaks to try and win the game. A flurry of chances followed, with Zwane and Morena both having shots saved by AmaZulu shot stopper Veli Mothwa.
With the game heading into additional time and destined for a stalemate, Chilean midfielder Allende found a pocket of space and fired towards the near post, beating Mothwa and claiming the winner in dramatic fashion in front of the home fans.
The win means Bafana Ba Style head into the upcoming international break at the top of the table.
How we lined up: Williams, De Reuck, Kekana, Mudau, Ngobeni, Jali, Mokoena (Maema) , Mbule(Allende), Saavedra (Morena), Zwane (Zungu), Shalulile
Subs: Pieterse, Morena, Mashego, Mailula, Allende, Mkhulise, Lebusa, Maema, Zungu
What really happened with Nassir because few weeks back we were told he’s got a bout of flu I mean what kind of a flu that lasted weeks or its a tuberculosis maybe who knows.
I mean we can’t rely only to Shalulile and a false striker Zwane if Nassir is sick,why don’t we utilize players like Romeo or Motupa while we still have them and what will happen if Shalulile get injured and still no Nassir after window period has shut,it seems we made a big mistake by letting Sofranko go,pls solve our goalscoring problem before its too late.
Good result Masandawana. It is not easy for us this season as most of the teams plan to stop us from playing. You can listen to their coaches’ post mach interviews..
We take three fat points and move on
Mngqithi&Rulani are starting to be just a bunch of fools now, you can’t tell me that they can leave Abubaker Nasir &Sirino at home and give us this they “are sick “crap statement. I mean Sirino &Nasir r very decisive &precise on attack and you can’t guess what they are trying to do because u know their intentions.The best striker in the whole country is frozen at home for some stupid strategy and experiments that aren’t yielding any results excepting these last minute lucky goals,what if they do not come one day.We struggle to beat Amazulu,the same team that conceded 2 easy goals last week against Chippa,the same Chippa United we struggled to beat but conceded 3 easy goals against Arrows.Is Sundowns on the right track?No!!!Why?Rulani&Mngqithi r fooling each other on that bench and some one there is just a fake Guardiola.Maybe the money that is being thrown around to buy these players is blurring and interrupting their visibility.I believe these coaches are just tripping each other ,why Rulani is not given a chance to coach the MDC because is just a mosquito that is just annoying.
Zakhele Lepasa is going to have a field day on the 1st of October with those two tractors in De Reuck and Grant Kekana. In as much as I don’t highly rate him as a good striker, he’ll really have it easy with those two. They both lack football brains. De Reuck always want to go into tackles even when it’s not neccessary. The real reason why they were not exposed was because Riva was protecting them, now they have Andile Jali. What a great game by Themba Zwane, the only player in that team who’ll always wear his heart on the sleeve. It’s a pity age is no longer on his side, but he’s the only player who plays his heart out
To be honest we have a great team but the problem is the technical team,they complicate things by wanting us to play European football whereas our players were not developed to play like that.We have a very talented team but they are restricted from expressing themselves on the pitch,no play is eliminating the numbers by running with the ball are taking players on.We are playing not to lose but not for a win,you need to give players freedom and let them enjoy the soccer not like prisoners who only do what they are told.Their coaching style is like dictionary full of pages with lot of interpretations which confuses players.Just imagine giving Real Madrid’s Vinus Junior instruction that he must jus trap and pass the ball when he is got the pace and the skill to dribble pass the opponents.Let the players dribble,make mistakes and fight for the ball.You could see Mbule is got that flair in him,his passing game is good,he dribbles players with easy hence he was forever fouled,you could see he sometimes wanted to express himself but scared of the monsters on the bench.At least Morena was and Allende had freedom of expression hence we started creating good opportunities after their introduction,they did not play according to instructions but for the benefit of the team,bcoz the instructions from the team is negative sideways and backwards possession football yielding no results.You watch Arsenal,R Madrid,Man City and Tottenham they take some few seconds to enter into the opposition box and constantly plays there,with us we can play more 5 minutes without box entry and we spend more than 70% of play in our own half.I always say we are tactically and technically bankrupt,our coaches have been complaining about teams playing defensively since the beginning of the season to this moment yet they have no plan to mitigate that.Lastly a team like Sundowns with galaxy of stars play more than 70 minutes without a single shoot on target,that pin point exactly where the problem is.
Other teams have different approach to different opponents,with us is same approach to different opponents.Teams apply tactics which suit them best.I have never had Pep complaining about other teams defensive approach because he always anticipate that and always has a solutions and always score more than one goal and in more than one occasion came from 2 nil down to win a game and that is something our team will never achieve under our current technical team,in fact they have never won a game when they conceded one goal first since they took over.Team play the way the want not the way you want them to play. Mngqithi recently said coaches must fired for trying to be marketing managers of Sundowns,them too must be fired for trying to be the technical directors of other team.Who do they think they are to dictate other teams on how they should play?
Good game especially second half, we need to capitalize on those chances we get. zwane was unlucky not to score and he had a great game. the coaches are the one who cost us the most because of their selection but I’m happy we got those points we need we need to change the way we approach these games
Slowly but surely going up. Sundowns must defend all the cups they won last season plus CCL then we can talk
Not a prettiest of game, but good moments in patches, can’t falter anyone though, in my thinking we still trying to strike a combination, hence the consistency in the starting line up. But I believe it will get better with time, and with all the stars we have, doesn’t mean we’ll always go bulldoze any opponent, it will be difficult sometimes. I just wish DeReuck and Kekana can play without panicking at the back, keeper is more calmer than them, but hopefully they’ll come right.
Masandawana what’s this we hear abt Lakay, we still need him, He can help mentor Ngobeni. Pls masandawana tell me who not losing Lakay
WE should appreciate that the coaches have fast-tracked the induction of the new players whilst we are still trying to find our feet but grinding for results … you can imagine what will happen when we start playing our usual self kind of soccer… we wont worry about what the new players can offer because already we have witnessed what they can do. So as supporters we need to stick to our title support the team through thick and thin. As things stand we are on position 1 could have been better had we not lost those 2 games as a result of defensive mistakes and even the draw was a mistake from Zwane. Lets move on
Teams are allowed to play any system that they deem fit against any opponent! It’s naive for our coaches to want other to play they way they want them to play!! Go and park our bus against a PEP Guadiola coached side and you will 3-5 goals without response! Our coaches are failing to come up with strategies on to break up teams that employ low blocks against them and thus it!!!