The encounter at the Athlone Stadium was hard-fought and played at a fast pace from the beginning. The first opportunity came Teboho Mokoena’s way with a shot from long range to test Stellies Lee Langeveldt but his effort went over the goalposts. The home team responded through an attack from Iqraam Rayners who was on target for Stellies, Denis but Onyango was well aware of the danger to make a great save and get the team going again.
Junior Mendieta and Khuliso Mudau battled it out on the right side of the pitch, Stellies were eventually awarded a free kick but no real threat came out of their attempt. Shortly after that, Neo Maema tried to force a shot on his left foot but there was no space for him to connect the ball on target as he was surrounded by Stellies defenders in the box.
Following a fine team move, Peter Shalulile got in the box and tried to shoot but he was also blocked by defenders as the ball fell back to him and shared it with his teammates as they played the ball back and away from the congested box. Masandawana held on to the ball as they looked to find a solution to the solid defence of the home team.
With 20 minutes already played and no goals on either side, Downs were awarded a set piece corner taken by Mokoena, Shalulile connected with the ball mid air but the striker’s header went over the posts. Mokoena got into action again, this time he linked up with Maema and exchanged passes going forward, Maema cut the ball back to his left foot again and curled his shot as it bounced past the goalmouth of Stellies.
Just after the half-hour mark, Sirino pulled away from his man and went 1v1 with the keeper, but Vusi Sibiya caught up to him with a tackle taking the ball out for a corner. Bafana Ba Style eventually found a breakthrough just before half time, Aubrey Modiba struck the upright from outside the box with the ball bouncing back into the net and off of the keeper’s heel.
The Brazilians got back into the second half looking to hold on their lead, but things took a turn when Mokoena carelessly lost the ball in the middle of the park, Rayners ran off with the ball and got around Onyango to find an equaliser for the home team. Maema tried to restore the lead for Downs but Langeveldt got off to make the save.
Stellies put pressure on the defence as the ball was being played backwards and attacked again just before the hour mark, their attempts were rewarding as Rayners scored a brace for the Coastal team. Sundowns looked to get back into the game with an immediate response when Shalulile and Modiba outplayed the defenders, but eventually they were dispossessed in their attack.
Rayners looked to cause more problems for Sundowns, this time the attacker played the ball for Mendieta who was running in but the striker shot off target and Onyango restarted play for Downs. Chances became few and far between, then almost out of nowhere Shalulile came close to goal once again after putting the ball on his chest but it bounced off and the keeper was close to collect the loose ball.
With 20 minutes left in the game, Downs looked to their bench for changes, Cassius Mailula, Abubeker Nasir and Abdul Boutouil made their way on the field. Maema, Sirino and Marcelo Allende stepped off the field. Stellies continued defending deep and blocking any attempts coming into their box, giving the visitors a difficult time to put any shots on target. With 4 minutes to go until full time, Siyabonga Mabena exchanged with Themba Zwane and Thapelo Morena came on for Mudau.
Masandawana looked to push forward in the closing stages and Morena had an attempt at goal but his shot ended up by Shalulile’s head with the ball going for goal kick. The Brazilians will miss out on defending the Ke Yona Cup after retaining it last season when they beat Marumo Gallants 2-1 at Royal Bafokeng Stadium.
This is how we lined up:
D. Onyango, Mudau (86′ Morena), Mvala, Modiba, Kekana, Mokoena, Zwane (86′ Mabena), Maema (70′ Nasir), Allende (70′ Boutouil), Sirino (70′ Mailula), Shalulile.
Subs:
Pieterse, Boutouil, Morena, Mbule, Mkhulise, Mabena, Domingo, Mailula, Nasir.
Thanks Stellenbosch for taking us out of the cup hope Rhulani and his players will stop to think they’re invincible and you could see the way they play they were too casual and arrogant,soccer can humble you and if they continue like this they will also bow out of the Champs League.
Mvala and Modiba are not a good combo where you can play them almost the whole season whereas we have good players that cjanged the game against Arrows like Mbule,Maboe and the Morrocan guy and I wonder why our coach is so obsessed with the same line up instead of fielding other players like Kapinga and Rhalani because they’re not on injury list of players.
Hope our Management will tell Rhulani that if he wants a new contract he must be at least reach the semifinals of Champs league,too many back passes and possession football doesn’t win you games but goals,lastly release D.Onyango he’s done his part not extend his contract and keep Ryiaad Peterson,kby forever
Winning the league with 7 games to spare is sometimes our biggest downfall &we ended up playing not on our top top standards.Rotation of players was what was needed &it happened because the league was already a dead rubber.Any coach should have done like that,circulate the players in terms of selection to keep harmony & great spirit
in the team.BUT Rulani Mokoena’s downfall is that of being not a coach sometimes but an agent of Modiba,Tebogo Mokena, D Onyango& Mvala.We have Reyaard Pieterse where do we go with this Madala?Pietrse has been having great saves and again why not Williams?How many poor games from defense by Modiba?Be serious coach Champions is at the door.But truth be told we don’t have the Divine rights to win every game and to be knocked out of cup was also a wake up call that, Champions League we can be knocked out again.Dont lose hope and despair pick up the pieces and be strong.
Sandawana, Modiba scored a good goal and Onyango was exposed by his team mates. u moya phansi Member i know you are hurt BUT let us not swear at them. we need them to win the next game. Yellow i remain
Although losing is part of the game, but our players start to relaxe after winning the psl and Rhulani must stop his attitude of confidenring himself as the best coach of South Africa forgetting that he has the best players in Psl and any coach can do well in Sundowns, he failed at Pirates. Also, he must stop with his favoritism of some players like Modiba, Mokoena, Mvala, Mudau in expense of other good players like Mashego, Morena, Jali, the Marrocan, De Reuck, Rivaldo, Kapinga, etc. If he continues like this, he will joint Mangboba as Assistant.
I will say once again Rulani lack experience and the down fall of Sundowns would be to let Manqoba leave at the end of the season thinking that we have the best coach
The whole team just didn’t pitch and the coach was going to be blamed either way if he didn’t start with regulars, that’s the nature of supporters. All those back passes started from Maema, but nobody is saying that because he’s somewhat the fan’s favorite. He receives the ball he passes it back in the first instance to Mokoena while Mokoena is under pressure and Mokoena tries to pass it back to the goalkeeper, 2nd goal the same Maema does exactly the same to Mvala
I doubt Rulani will win Caf as much as I would like him to continue with Sundowns… He is full of himself and favoritism is killing him… The is nothing in Mvala, Modiba and he keeps on playing them day in day out… The are players when he field them he will substitute them even they are playing good… One of them is Sirino… I think Sundowns must keep Manqoba because by the look of things we will need him again… I know we won’t win everything and every year that’s the reason I don’t have a problem about lose of yesternight… But Caf
Rulani and his compassionate team selection cost us the Nedbank cup.I said it many times that Mvala is ticking time bomb,it has exploded partially the worst is yet to come,he lost the ball from first whistle to the last,the guy is a hard worker and terrible soccer player and Rulani confuses th two.He nearly cost Bafana a place in the next AFCON.Mvala cannot even run or dispossess an opponent.Onyango also can’t anticipate the situation,it was Williams he would have read the situation better.Zwane Sirinoh,Mudau and Mvala were never in the game from whistle one yet the coach took long to replace them.You can’t bench Mailula and Williams in a knockout cup.Mudau plays with his feet only he lacks football brain compared to Morena,the same goes to Mvala he is like a robot he can’t even take one step forward when in possession of a ball,modern soccer requires a creative defenders like that Moroccan guy.We lacked intensity and aggression,Mbule and Allende provided that against Arrows yet Sirinoh who comes from a long layoff started the game.Maema is also selfish he also tries to score even when others are in a better place to score.Coach select your team on merit rather than name,reputation and favouritism or you won’t go far in this career.I sometimes gets the frustrations of the likes of Mbule,Pieterse and others,you play well and the next game you are on the bench or in the stands while others regularly for making mistakes in every game.This must come to an end or we will be out of champions league before we even board a plane to Algeria.
Yesterday’s required dribblers to unlock that defence and who better to do that than Kapinga not even on the bench. Cant blame the coach though becoz the 2 mistakes by Mokoena and Mvala.. Other than those errors the team played well Mshishi and Sirino were below performance Mudau must improve offensively his overlapping is not yielding any results very poor with crosses. But besides Barker had a plan which worked for him becoz we are predictable that is why we have been drawing lately teams have figured out how to stop us… We need to wake up from this slumber otherwise we will be eliminated from CAF
Morning masandawana, I’m very angry at sundowns players, they are too casual. mokeona’s mistake cost us first goal and another mistake from mvala stellebocsh score second. and upfront shalulile was hustling alone. I have seen this coming on Wednesday when we play arrows, that mistake from nazir arrows score from it ooh guys even caf we are going out
Masandawana, yes our players are very relaxed and we are not going to win the champions league, we are at is were it is coming from, without Andile Ja we are going to struggle. let us not blame our type of play because we have been playing like this for a long time this is our play BUT you need experience during this times, we cannot blame Modiba because he scored a beautiful goal. we cannot blame Pnyango because he was sold by his mates. let us go back and prepare heavily for Champions league. we must just bring back Andile with his experience. Ka bo Yellow i remain
The sooner you accept that Jali is going the better. I also support the team in this instance. We cannot allow ill-discipline in the team. This is not the 1st time that Jali arrived at training drunk, he did the same under Pitso and I think it’s the right time for the team not to renew his contract. We need to bring Mkhize back from Chippa United. This thing of signing old madala players must come to an end. Even today I struggle to understand what the team saw in almost all our defenders, bar Rushine de Reuck and that Morrocan guy.