The defending Champions of the Wafa Wafa Cup started extremely brightly, exploding into the match in a 4-3-1-2 formation with Thapelo Morena and Neo Maema upfront. Teboho Mokoena had a glorious chance to give Masandawana the lead in the 15th minute, Mokoena’s long shot outside the box looked to be on target before being cleared out by United defenders.
Another promising opportunity for the home team followed a few minutes later, Themba Zwane hit his shot wide past George Chigova who was standing in goals for Matsatsantsa. Towards the half hour mark, after Bafana Ba Style have been dictating the game, Iqraam Rayners looked to bring the visitors back into the game, the 26-year-old forward put the ball into Downs box where his teammate Bradley Grobler was found flat footed to connect with the ball as it went out of play.
Sundowns were quick to regain possession of the ball as they continued to craft a plan to penetrate through United’s solid defense, the visitors looked determined to sit back and allow Downs time to rotate the ball from one side of the field to the other. Five minutes before heading into the break, Matsatsantsa found the chance to go forward and it was Gamphani Lungu who came close to goal as his shot hit Ronwen Williams on the side of the goal post, however the two Tshwane rivals went into the break with no goals on either side.
When the second half resumed Peter Shalulile and Khuliso Mudau were in high-speed, Shalulile received a fantastic pass from the right back, but his efforts at goal went off target. Another outstanding moment for The Brazilians followed in attack, Neo Maema and Morena exchanged passes in between the defenders to find Mokoena. The 26-year-old lined up another incredible shot outside the 18 area but took a deflection on United’s Luke Fleurs.
SuperSport’s Rayners caused havoc in Downs’ box before Rushine De Reuck dismissed the ball out for a corner kick. After the corner was played, Masandawana charged forth in counter attack through wingers Morena who played the ball to Mudau as they tried to find Maema but Thalente Mbatha intercepted the cross.
Sundowns made their first substitution in the encounter shortly after the hour mark, Marcello Allende stepped in for Maema, followed by Abubeker Nasir, Sipho Mbule and Mothobi Mvala who replaced Mudau, Shalulile and Zwane later in the match. The Chile international maestro opened the scoring board for Masandawana with ten minutes left to play, scoring his second goal for the club and his first in the MTN8 Cup competition. Morena’s delivery into the box set up Shalulile who had a touch at the bakk before Allende ran on to it to finish up the work.
Shalulile also had a chance to put one behind Chigova before he was substituted, but the Namibian’s shot went sky rocket after receiving a pass from substitute Nasir. Yandisa Mfolozi went into the referee’s book after pulling down Nasir in a 1v1 battle, the Ethiopian striker looked to be going for goal before being obstructed.
It was not over for the defending Champions, Nasir was presented with a glorious chance to make it 2-0 in the dying minutes of the battle, a pass from Mokoena fell to the striker as he doubled the lead and sealed the victory for the home team. Sundowns joins the other three Premier Soccer League teams in the semi-final draw that will be announced on Monday, 29 August.
This is how we lined up:
R. Williams, T. Morena, L. Lakay, K. Mudau, B. Onyango, R. De Reuck, T. Mokoena, A. Jali © , N. Maema (62′ Allende), T. Zwane (85′ Mvala), P. Shalulile
Subs:D. Onyango (GK), M. Lebusa, B. Ralani, S. Mkhulise, S. Mbule, M. Mvala, M. Allende, N. Abubeker, A. Modiba
Well done to our technical team, players and all supporters who attended the game.
KBY
Congratulations to the boys,the technical team, the singing supporters who keep this team on their toes and giving the players that winning momentum.As for Gavin Hunt always mentioning multi million Rand team,is uncalled for.If he has an issue with the way things have happened he must address those things with Stanley Mathews.Let us say Sundowns wanted Mbule &Mokoena,then what r other players doing at Sundowns namely Grant Kekena,Modiba,Williams,then it’s Stanley who changed Supersport to a Jomo Cosmos of Pretora.If we are consistent with the way we see things Supersport Company chose to splash billions of Rands to the Premier Soccer League and that left the club without a sponsor,again that’s for Gavin to confront Stanley on that &leave Sundowns alone,I mean he(Hunt)has been doing this since his time at Wits&he does that every time he loses a game against Sundowns.I was impressed by Nasir if the coaches tried to loan out the player without assessing him leaves a sour bitter taste,thanks to Ethiopian media for lambasting our technical team.Yes we left it very late in terms of scoring goals and sometimes we have to grind results,a knockout game is a once off thing or a smash&grab thing&u just forget how beautiful u played. The business was completed within 90 minutes thats what matters most,the Sky Is The Limit.
Good win… Good overall performance… Buildup too slow though… I understand the thousand cuts by the coaches…. Sometimes there’s opportunities too play quick. I’ve said before Shalulile doesn’t have to cleanest first touch in football… That’s why you want in front of goal just to finish… Not play him wide where he has to have too many touches. Nasir adds a bit of space in our play which is good. Onyango is still suspect… But hasn’t done much wrong though. Mudau is the best right back by a country mile. I don’t want to much about Jali… Congrats to the team.. They were efficient on the day
I forgot to raise the level of officiating in the PSL against Stellenbosch the referee saw a penalty in an about turn situation its more like the official consulted his VAR &changed his initial decision.It was like is it my eyes?Then Nasir is heading goalwards boom a wrestling match with the defender ensued and a yellow card is flashed&my question is that the right colour of the card,I thought the referee now is going to consult his VAR 🤣🤣🤣🤣,no consultation at all from Luxolo Badi had his intentions only known to himself. Teams lose crucial games like these because of a lack of backbone from officials.I mean the way Nasir was pulled
u could see the defender did not care about the outcome of his actions but referee chose to give an amnesty to the culprit, wow I rest my case
Congrats also to the team for the job well done but I have some issues with my team that I think We need to correct them going forward,firstly this thing of too many back passes is derailing us in hurting the teams mostly, to me its like like we are over doing it because we do it on our hallf not suffocating our opponents its seems we are obsessed with possession yhan going forward and another thing I don’t know maybe Zwane’s contract says he must always starts the game,the guy is little bit off form but come the following match he’s on starting line up whereas we have plenty of capable replacement like Mbule,Kapinga and our new recruits who when they’re introduced always change the game so as Maema for always starting, just for once let them starts on the bench and we’ll see the best of them and I repeat Wisemen don’t make us to hate our players because they don’t field themselves,select players on merit not on reputation, Kby forever
I hope our technical team has seen the HUGE difference in our attacks when Morena is playing at right back compared to when Mudau is playing,Im sure Mudau would not hv delivered the same quality of a cross that was delivered by Morena which led to the 1st goal.So I dnt understand y Mudau is consistently starting at ryt back ahead of a far better Thapelo Morena
Correct Muzi,with both Zwane and Maema on the pitch we are playing less effective possession football with no purpose,they are forever passing side ways with no defense splitting passes,they are doing the same job as AJ and Tebza whereas theirs is more offensive hence Shaulile and Morena were always isolated.We started playing offensive and attractive football with purpose after they were substituted,you could see the game was heading for extra time b4 they were replaced.Their contribution in five games is less than that of Nasir and Allende in less than 45 minutes.Zwane needs to be managed properly,the technical team is doing the same mistake as Pitso did with Hlompho by playing him every game.Shaulile must work hard on his finishing and Madau on his final product,he is got speed,strong engine and no play can beat him on one on one but when it comes to crossing he is bad,he must learn from Morena. Mbule has shown he can play,his confidence and work rate are high,let us try a different approach to the on we used in the last six games. Congratulations on proceeding to the next round of the MTN8,Enjoyed the last 15 minutes of the game.AJ and Tebza worked very hard in the middle and De Reuck was solid,Williams up to the task.Well done yellow nation for filling up Tuks stadium,you were buzzing more after the introduction ofAllende and Nasir.Thank you.