A bad day at the office for Mamelodi Sundowns as they lost to Cape Town city by three goals to two. This was Masandawana’s first loss in seven games in all competitions. Since the resumption of football, the defending Absa Premiership champions have played four games winning one and drawing two.
“We were always fighting to equalise which we did not, we struggled a little bit, we always believed we will come back and they took their chances very well. We tried to score and we pinned them but they resited”, said Coach Pitso Mosimane.
The Citizens were the first one’s to score as Surprise Ralani found the back of the net after his initial shot was saved by Denis Onyango. Kermit Erasmus scored the second goal for the home side and it looked like the first stanza will end with two-nil but Masandawana found the back of the net through an own goal by Dove Edmilson. Twenty four games have been played and The Brazilians are six points behind the log leaders.
“We are struggling and we are not going to hide if we were doing well we should be winning, we are upfront we not gonna hide, after we came back Sundowns is not the same. We drew two and lost one”.
The second half saw both sides throwing everything and with the Brazilians pushing for that important equaliser a mistake at the back by Wayne Arendse allowed Ralani to stretch the lead as he put the ball past Onyango. Keletso Makgalwa managed to find space behind the City defence to reduce the deficit in the 90th minute and the game ended 3-2.
Bad day at the office for Mamelodi Sundown but the boy’s soldier on and next up is a clash against Maritzburg United on Friday at 18:00.
How we lined up:
Onyango, Lukhubeni (Jali 62′), Coetzee, Arendse, Langerman (Lakay 74′), Mabunda (Vilakazi 62′), Mkhulise, Kekana, Sirino (Makgalwa 73′), Zwane (Mahlambi 62), Maboe.
Pieterse, Makgalwa, Mkhuma, Madisha, Vilakazi, Jali, Mahlambi, Lakay, Soumahoro
I could not keep quite when Sundowns displayed some mediocre performance lately, especially in middle of the park,but today I stand up to salute efforts made by the team in this game. I was very impressed to see boys starting to make runs,winning the ball,playing and completing passes with accuracy. It does not matter we might have lost the title to Chiefs but loosing in that fashion makes one loses with pride. Good improvement,please give it again in the next game. Gudluck
Can u plz rest the captain
On Maritzburg United
game, what sin has Lucky
Mohomi committed to
deserve this , our team is
not performing up to
required standard plz
technical team be fair to
all of our players,. ,,,,, I am
Happy with Makgalwa &
Mkhulise but plz be fair
To Mohomi
Khayz& Witness forget about Mohomi being selected by Pitso;some people are not fighting 4 the jersey but receive the starting line-up on a silver platter;no matter how awful their performances.Attack Sundowns in the middle of the park you’ll see how vulnerable we r infront of the 18 area.I mean has been having poor performances 4 the entire season can u guess as 2 why after a no show performance you’ll see that playing again.U cant even imagine what is Pitso expecting from the boy.Yesterday he left Laffor&Meza at home bcoz he hates them just for what exactly;a comedy of errors from well established players.Come next season Pitso will b playing these ppl killing young talent that is coming next season.Pitso&your staff can u b fair and select ppl on merit not based on favouritism.
What a poor performance, our defense is floop,midfielders flop.we are not promising to compete for ABSA premier… Maboa is good for nothing,give Bangaly a chance as well Mr Manager
If we can put favoritism aside and play players on merit we can win all the remaining games to make it 64 points but you know the story at Downs we’ll heard the big words “I can’t take out so and so because he won us Champions league and he was our star when we won the league four years ago”
Players come and go and nobody is owing the starting line up even he’s performance is below par.Lets play players on merit just just once nje.
Im very disappointed to the technical stuff and our players, there’s no dedication at all our team is agieng the sooner they do something the better.
Masandawan we will not win all our games but it’s painful to lose even though losing is part of the game, but if we evaluate the start of the season three seasons ago, we can recall that SUNDOWNS always starts slow and finish stronger, Let’s not lose hope we are the better team in the continent
Teams penetrate us in the middle bcoz Kekana runaround the pitch doing nothing leaving a huge void in the middle,he plays like Matlaba they will fool you with useless runs and Pirates realized it late.First it was Motswari,Mvala and now Nodada,they dismantled us big time,not bcoz they’re good but bcoz of poor Kekana.How you play very old Arendse agaInst very quick Rhulani and very skillful and clever Erasmus?.Every team relishes playing us bcoz of very weak midfield.Truth be told we are the very weak team in the league now bcoz we play names not performance,with this kind of performance I don’t see us playing champions league next season. We have turned into charity organization,we donated long term contracts to very old players,donating points and donating league to Chiefs.We need a total overhaul next season,starting from management,technical team and players.Downs will never grow anymore under Pitso and his old players.We are failing to reach at least the final of champions league since 2016.We just need fresh ideas and legs period.Management plz do something about this new normal happening in our team.We know we can’t win the league every season or win every game but performance wise we should be able to show,everyone can see the problem is team selection and favoritisms.Players like Maboe and Kekana are always first on the team list and are not replaced.
I concur with you hundred percent, every team we play park the bus and attack us on counter with speed and we dont have answers and also this patient build up is not helping
Masandawana ,hardy, I agree with those that say we can’t win everything and that we need an overhaul of the team next season, however not the technical team. Our golden boys that won us the champions league and many trophies are now ageing fast and naturally we fall in the same trap of not wanting to replace them because we still think they will win us the league. The last game against CTC was not that bad , but we committed a lot of mistakes, truth be told the midfield is no longer sharp and makes our defence vulnerable. Upfront we lack aggression and speed.Sirino at times is selfish, Mshishi, Kekana are tired.If rumours are true that Gift Motupa, Shalulile, Modiba, then our problems will be sorted upfront and in the middlefield I now think of the combination of Jali , Maluleka and Kapinga as we need to rest our golden boys.Lastly for us to be well oiled machinery ,we need two quick center backs and then we can compete anywhere.
Its only Maboe,Kekana and Onyango who doesn’t get criticism irrespective of their performances but others they will be crucified.
Truly speaking Kekana is costing us big time not the other middlefielders but he always on the starting line up and I wonder in four years time what he will be like if he’s doing it right now,pls don’t get me wrong I love him as a person but not his performance nowadays he must sit on the bench.
The less say about Maboe the better and I’m running out of words to describe his performance.,kby forever
sure we cannot be a bad team over night while we on position 2 and still have to play Ned-bank final and having won the Telkom cup already and lets trust the process and our technical team will rectify dey mistakes and remedy the situation and lets give credit to Cape Town City who outclassed us in all departments and lets handle the pressure from Naturena and give credit when its due . For Sure our technical team will fight until the end and next we will be a better team
this thing Maboe starting every changing position play full 90min weakest link really disgracefull other worse part to partner Rivardo and Arense centre even though Madisha committed so much fouls is better than these two if favourite no matter u will starting xi
Hardy masandawana is painfull but is the game we have to soldier one n support the team lets not be too hard on pitso he wil get it right cause he did it before we wil bounce back. I just wish pitso can break the bank and get erasmus to our team thats exctly the player we need
Pitso’s problem is one,when he loves he doesn’t see any wrong in you even though are making mistakes every game.He crucify for one or little mistake,I remember him crusifying Bangaly when we played CAF ,he said something about citizenship of that club’s country made him do mistakes,I mean that was unprofessional and unfounded story but if his favorites make mistakes he is quick to defend them,he must be a father figure to all players not a distructure.Players like Mohomi and Bangaly need to be given a fair chance also,they can do better than Kekana and Arendse,they are both strong and tough which lack from his preferred players,even Meza should start upfront,he is skillful and a fighter.We seriously need a left back bcoz Langerman seems not to know what to do with the ball,he switches off in crucial stages of the game.To management we don’t any player or coach anything for winning us trophies,they did what they are paid to do,if they are no longer performing the should be benched others be given a chance,including the coach.
The are rusty, they are slow and a bit disorganized. Relying on Sirino to carry the team is haunting us now. You need to groom the real strikers so they could help during challenging times. Phaka, Laffor, Meza, etc really need to come to the party.
I’m very disappointed with the results, how can the coach not play Laffof even if the guy is ready to play ? our captain looks tired pls try Jali and mohomi or jali mabunda.
Do we even have strikers any mor, in our team, we lack vision going forward we are not dangerous going forward. Its like we have bunch of strikers come defenders we touching the boy around does not make you winners but scoring goals make you winners
Our game against the Citizens was disappointing, however, there was few technical errors that i have observed.Why did the technical team leave Jali out of the team cause in my opinion is far the best player at the moment.Why play Cotzee and Arendse at centre when you know that there is a threat of Ralani and Erasmus? I also think that Mahlambi should lead the line upfront.Lastly ,the team need to buy Modiba who can play both left wing and left back and i think we can see now is the beginning of the end for Langerman, mabunda and Aredse.Kekana has a lot to offer as long as he is partnered with Jali in midfield
A lot of factors are affecting our performance.. psychological and tactically. Our players have played on the biggest stages and shouldn’t be playing with fear or nerves.They need a reminder of how good they are and just allow them to play like they can, give them freedom and responsibility, don’t over coach them they have been throug hundreds of tactical sessions , they seasoned players let them go out there relaxed and at to their full potential, in short cut back on tactical and analysis overload. Also can we have a player who will be our reference point upfront and hold up the ball allowing midfielders to join the attack and he should just remain there and not run all over the field.. Villa could play that role even Zwane potentially can do well there cos currently he’s losing a lot of possession in midfield but make no mistake he can be brilliant in that role just like Moriri was and they have similar qualities.. next play Makgalwa just behind that frontman he’s very mobile and good at running in pockets of space and boy can he finish.. Lastly please coach give Hlompho a rest or at least play him for 45 minutes and then sub him cos I can see that he doesn’t play the full ninety minutes with the same intensity , it’s like he’s saving himself which at his age it’s understandable.. Also can Jali start with either Mabunda or Riva as defensive midfielders..
Pitso! we are behind you 100% keep at it… you are a winner full-stop. Mtn 8 semis, Telkom cup in the bag, Fighting for the league you hold x2(4) and in the final of Nedbank. and there is the little matter of competing in africa year in year out (this year you lost to that small team in Egypt Al ahly in the QF’s)
guys you are right….Jali, Mohomi, Phakamani…and Somahoro…deserve a chance…..please Coach…rest ,Kekana, Rivaldo, arendse and Mshishi…please….otherwise we wont even get the nedbank cup
The only central defender who can stop Judas Moseamedi on Friday is none other than Bangaly not Arendse who doesn’t have a speed and difficult to turn.
Bangaly is strong and quick and I don’t know why the poor guy is not playing in the absence of Nascimento and Lebusa,pls don’t even think of Madisha if you are still serious of challenging Chiefs at the top,hope kobanjalo my best coach siphelile manje iskhathi se favoritism sifuna only players that will produce. Kby forever
And on our last game against kaizer chiefs we need Laffor and Mahlambi its either on the bench or on the line up but they must be there
The team is not doing well at all but my concern is on rivado cozee why is he always on the starting line up with his back passes that end up costing the team?and why dont the coach rest our captain coz even his perfomance is costing us as the team sundowns is the big team we must put aside that we have lifted telkom this season we also need this league because with this perfomance we can and up even loosing this nedbank final our coach must be careful of his line up and lastly the backward is a critical place u cannot just change all the defenders in the line up