Mamelodi Sundowns Kick-Off Their CAFCL Campaign on a High Note
Mamelodi Sundowns asserted their dominance in the CAF Champions League as they defeated Eswatini side, Mbabane Swallows 3-0 on the first stanza of the 2nd preliminary round, on Saturday evening at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Defender, Asekho Tiwani stamped his dominance in the match very early in the match as he earned his side a penalty, after the he got tackled inside the box. It was Ribeiro who took the spot-kick on the 2nd minute, with his left foot, as the Swallows’ keeper flew the opposite direction, to open the scoring.
It didn’t take a while before Masandawana made it two on the 17th minute through Mosa Lebusa’s free header. It came from Ribeiro’s corner kick, then the Downs defender headed the ball into the box. A few minutes later, Arthur Sales was forced out after picking up an injury and Thapelo Maseko was introduced.
The Brazilians were in the mood in the first half as they saw another goal before heading to the break, which came through Iqraam Rayners, who scored his first goal in Brazilian colours. He was sharp as a razor in the box, as he seized the opportunity to take an unreal shot, to make it three goals. They went to the break with a commanding lead.
The teamwork continued in the second stanza as they scored the fourth goal just before the hour mark. Rayners returned the favour to Ribeiro as he made a beautiful supply to make Ribeiro shoot the ball, giving him his brace.
Shortly after the goal, coach Manqoba introduced Malibongwe Khoza and Peter Shalulile, and it didn’t take long enough before the Namibian forward posed a threat in front of goal, but his chance was not fruitful. Even with the many more clear-cut chances created in the second half, the match ended with only four goals for the away side. Masandawana will head to the second leg with an upper hand, when they host Swallows next weekend.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Kekana, Lebusa, Morena, Tiwani, Coetzee, Maboe, Allende, Rayners, Sales, Ribeiro.
Subs: Onyango, Khoza, Modiba, Zwane, Kodisang, Mkhulise, De Reuck, Maseko, Shalulile.
Very impressed by the level of commitment by the boys.But strangely once Allende got substituted then Sundowns became lukewarm,it can’t be that ppl would be given a run then they go 2 sleep.Shalulile keep ur head down &cool you’ll get ur MOJO.I’m disappointed by the performance of Maseko,I wonder what Mngqithi&Rhulani saw to this boy, Mabena as much as is 17 years old can do better than this boy.What a torture waste of breath and an eye sore 2 watch Maseko falling &running like a headless chicken.But overall Sundowns was aggressive &showed a lot of commitment and let’s hope we brush aside Supersport on Tuesday.We r still having a big room for improvement,but as the time goes on we will b a well oiled machine
I didn’t watch the game so can’t comment on it ,i will only comment on what i noticed which make me very angry.This technical team is digging their own grave with regard to team selection,i was very much angry when i saw Jody’s name not on the match day squad and i asked myself which criteria are they using when making team selection.Jody played well in the games he played but to drop him completely was immature of the technical team,starting with Williams was understandable because they wanted to see if he is really ready because he has been out for a long time,nothing against Onyango but if we want to take our team to the next level we must do away with this nonsense of automatic choice.Players must earn their places,besides Jody is the future of the team,Onyango played his part in the team and i respect that,this simply means Jody only played because of the unavailability of the two.These people don’t learn,we failed to beat Esperance with their 20 year old keeper in the post.You must plan for now and the future at the same time.I urge our technical team to watch European football especially Barcelona,99% of their players are below 25 years of age and are from development.Young players play with lot of hunger and energy.If you check at the likes of Guadiola he knows when to release players even if they are big names and don,t give him what he want,make no mistake if players like Aguero were playing for us he will still be in the team right now.Create a healthy competition by doing away with automatic choice,Manqoba even went on to say how do you drop Maboe with the performance he dished out over the weekend which is good but he dropped Jody from the match day squad. Be consistent on how you do things.I only wanted to raise out this concern.