Mamelodi Sundowns have ended their Betway Premiership campaign following their 3-2 defeat against TS Galaxy on Tuesday night at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga. A brace from Brayan Leon was not enough to see Masandawana walk away with at least a point.
Two minutes into the game, Downs almost broke the deadlock through Arthur Sales but the goalkeeper ran off his line to block the ball from going past him.
On the fifth minute, the referee pointed to the spot in favour of the hosts after Zuko Mdunyelwa caused a foul inside the box. The penalty shot saw the Rockets open the scoring as it sent Ronwen Williams the opposite direction.
Masandawana took control for a while as they created chances through high-balls inside the box but their efforts were supressed by the goalkeeper.
18 minutes into the game, the hosts doubled their advantage after beating the Downs defence in the final third. The ball was slotted in on the bottom left corner finding the farpost. From there, the hosts controlled of the tempo of the game, denying space for their visitors.
In a space of two minutes, Masandawana scored two goals, courtesy of Brayan Leon. The first one came on the 38th minute when Nuno Santos made a cross from the right flank and Leon found the ball with his head to head it home. Two minutes later, the referee pointed to the spot again and this time, in favour of Downs. Leon took the shot and found the back of the net to level matters.
Bafana Ba Style picked up the intensity after the two goals as they looked to find more goals but they could only head to the interval all level.
A minute into the second half, the hosts snatched back the lead. It came through a defence-splitting pass, beating the Downs defence. Williams came off his mark but the ball was sent past him to make it three.
Aubrey Modiba came close to finding the back of net when he took a shot from a tight angle on the left flank but the keeper smacked it away.
Inside 70 minutes, substitute, Miguel Reisinho came close to levelling matters when he took a low shot but the keeper caught his effort. Leon also had an opportunity when Santos delivered the ball in the box but Leon’s headed effort was also bucketed by the keeper.
On the 82nd minute, Williams made a double save with his body from the left flank. The first one came from an error and the second one came after attempting to clear the first chance.
Masandawana put all the effort to ensure they get another goal but they were just not getting it right, which led to them concluding their league season with a loss.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Mdunyelwa, Johannes, Kekana, Modiba, Mokoena, Allende, Santos, Letlhaku, Sales, Leon.
Subs: Onyango, Reisinho, Lunga, Ndamane, Zwane, Ntsabeleng, Mothiba, Matthews, Rayners.
Editor pass my greetings to Motsepe Junior and his puppy Fleming Berg for this self sabotage I mean firing Rhulani while Sundowns r league champions then firing Mngqithi while Sundowns was on top of league table replacing them with a stupid clueless European bcoz he’s white.He let go of Mbule,Maema&Lorch replaced them with his compatriots Santos and Reisinho bt combined they r nothing compared to Lorch,now he’s busy complaining abt fatigue really.Shalulile a match winner for Sundowns in big games especially against Chiefs &Pirates bt comes with cheap stupidity that Shalulile isn’t good against these teams.Mkhulise,Basadien,Aaubas,Ntshabeleng,Morena,Shalulile r not fatigued including Mvala r not given game time thanks to a useless tactical bankrupt Cardoso.Cardoso thank you 4 taking us back to the years of 2013 of no silverware for 7 years.U deliberately lost domestic trophies making excuses to concentrate on Champions league and the league,where’s the league now.I mean there’s no guarantee of winning the Champions league on Sunday.
Mfana i concur with you,you can’t cry fatigue when most of your players have few minutes on their belt,this boils down to incompetency by the coach.Like i said in the past article,he only believes in 11 players,another thing is ,there is no healthy competition in the team,some players are guaranteed positions no matter how bad they perform.Modiba and Lunga have been making costly mistakes but they are forever in the team while Basadien is in the stands,Sales from an injury straight in the team,play terrible game but the next game is in the starting 11,the same goes to Williams and Onyango they will make horrible mistakes but they constantly in the team. Mkhulise also same story he would play good and come the next game he is in the stands.The coach’s players are rewarded for playing bad while his not so favorite are punished for having a good game.If the team was refreshed by hungry players and our young players we would have wrapped this league long time.This is exactly how we lost league to Wits under Pitso,we would play in Algeria and come back and play the next game in two days at Thohoyandou with the same players.The results of trusting young players is Letlhaku he was playing with easy the past two games.In the last game against Galaxy when we have corner he would play as a sweeper and initiates attacks seamlessly,you will never go wrong when you play your team on merit not reputation or big names when performance is not big.I still miss Manqoba his team was always fresh and scoring lots of goals.He was not afraid to change the whole team and also play young players.I remember our away game to Polokwane city last season he made 10 changes and started the game with the likes of Mabena and Tiwane.How are young players going to develop if they are not given chance to play for the senior team? Lamine is a world star at 18 years of age because someone believed in him.Manqoba’s only mistake was to want to make the team play forward football with pace and high intensity and some lazy grannies started to revolt against him.We have coward of a coach and management.You can’t keep an unhappy player in the team,if we had astute management who understand football business this team would be far by now and players like Mudunyelwa would be stars by now.When Mudau had his issues Mudunyelwa played well and was even selected for Bafana,we should have easily released Mudau and get Matuludi,the same goes to Shalulile we should have cashed on him while he was still in demand and brought young and hungry striker like we did with Leon.We struggled against young Mahlambi and teams like Richards Bay with young players yet we don’t give our own chance.We only need prayers to win Champions League because Cardoso and his favorite players is not make sure.His players play one position only,we doesn’t have wisdom to players play multiple positions like our previous coaches.Mudau can also play as a central defender and should have also tried Basadien as a left center back because Lunga failed dismally,it is just that wisdom cannot be bought