A point is what Mamelodi Sundowns walked away with on Wednesday night following a 1-1 draw against Marumo Gallants at the Dr Petrus Molomela Stadium.
It only took three minutes for the visitors to trigger the first big chance through Peter Shalulile, but his powerful on-target shot saw the goalkeeper diving to smack it away.
Gallants were not making it easy for Masandawana because after that attempt by Shalulile, two big chances came from them. The first one came when a shot from the right flank slightly missed the target. The second one came from a defence-splitting pass from the midfield. The ball was moved forward, but Ronwen Williams smelt the danger early, seeing him coming out of his mark to clear the ball.
Teboho Mokoena also looked to open the scoring when he tested the goalkeeper with his long-range effort, but the shot was smacked away. After a long search for an opener, Downs broke the deadlock in the 28th minute. From the right flank, ThapeloMorena handed the ball to Marcelo Allende, who made a cross to the area. With a clinical finish, Iqraam Rayner headed the ball in.
Seven minutes later, the visitors were punished when Gallants put the ball past Williams and the defence to level matters. This saw the two sides heading to the break with a goal apiece.
Upon return to play, just a few meters from the area, substitute Tashreeq Matthews fired a powerful shot, but the keeper, again, punched the shot away. The end-to-end football between the two sides continued, but there were no clear-cut chances created.
The hosts almost snatched the lead when the Downs rearguard was tested; luckily, Williams was alert enough to clear the danger. A dangerous cross came from Masandawana in the 80th minute, but the hosts managed to clear it out of the area.
The last action of the night came from Mokoena, who almost scored a last-gasp goal, but a headed intervention denied his side an opportunity to walk away with maximum points.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Morena, Khoza, Cupido, Lunga, Mokoena, Allende. Adams, Sales, Rayners, Shalulile.
Subs: Onyango, Modiba, Mudau, Mvala, Aubaas, Mkhulise, Letlhaku, Mothiba, Matthews.
Our league is so poor that Downs are position two,really We are not playing good football and since we participated in CWC we thought we have arrived and untouchable.
I hate the coach who introduced that slow build ups and too many backpasses to the goalkeeper,we are not hurting the teams because there’s no sense of urgency we don’t catch them on breaks we are just playing for the sake of it and the main culprit is Ronwen.
Our coach is a smooth talker and a liar yesterday he complained about opposition goalkeeper whereas his own goalkeeper was busy delaying the play and he didn’t says anything.
We brought on Tsiki but he kept on saying he’s not ready because he wants to play his favourite players whom are not giving us anything.
We will win this league not because we are best but of our fellow opponents which are poor.
Few minutes to the final whistle they were rushing because they saw it’s late instead of practicing sense of urgency from the beginning and relax later when we know the points are in the bag.
Young Khoza what he always do is giving the backpasses to the goalkeeper all the time and plays sideways.
Spot on member,i said it long time ago when the useless media where praising Khoza as the only player with more touches in the team and i said 90% of his touches are back passes.At least some people are noticing that we have brainless coach,last season he said he can’t play Zwane at PE because the pitch was bad and this season fresh from long term injury he plays him on a terrible Lucas Moripe pitch,like Muzi said Williams was the one wasting time more than the opponents and in the dying minutes that’s when him and Khoza started to play forward passes,why didn’t they play like that from the 1st whistle? Williams doesn’t deserve to be our captain,even at Bafana they were boeing for doing that nonsense.Team can’t starts with 2 strikers but play at the back it makes no sense,there is huge difference between building from the back and playing at the back,on Tuesday are heard Chippa coach post match interview he said “when player is having the ball 1st option is forward pass,2nd is side ways and 3rd is back pass” and most of our players chooses the last option. Muzi i still agree with you on the video analysis issue,if it was really done technical team would have noticed that we attack more when Adams and Allende are not playing together,playing both of them at the same time compromises our offensive play,we attacked more against Magesi because one of them was on the bench but since we have blind technical team they are unable to pick that out.You play both of them when you are leading 2-0 and you want to control the game,not when you want a team to create scoring chances.We are so predictable.I think if we can place both Cardoso and Williams on special leave 99% of our problems will be solved.
Spot on members. I am disappointed in Letlhaku. He is not aggressive, and when he challenges for the ball, he is not doing it to win the ball. The two Pirates youngsters are far better than ours, despite the latter having been introduced first to top-flight football, which is why they deserve their selection on Bafana.
Why does the coach insist on playing Adams while he is not giving us anything, may be his contract is crafted such he should always be fielded.
Under these circumstances, we must forget about winning Africa. Poor Tsiki, he will be put under pressure the day he is introduced because of flops such as Adams, Letlhaku, and Williams.
Our team lacks vision including our Chairman Thlopie and I bet my last cent if Mbokazi of Pirates was signed by us he will he forever sitting on grandstand.The coach said last night he can’t put youngsters to deep end because Downs is a big team it will like destroying them whereas in big teams players like Yamal Lamal together with under 18 are playing daily at Barca,this coach is useless and a liar.
We’ve got good youngsters like Gomolemo Kekana a good player who can replace Mokoena but he’s nowhere to be found,ya I gree from today we don’t have a coach finish and klaar and he’s busy chasing American players because he don’t trust our African players and I so wish we don’t find anyone from that country till the 22nd of September.
Let’s swallow our pride and look for a new coach ayikho lena even our assistant Kompela is just sitting there doing nothing naye he must go.
morning members im wery disappointed our football lacks creativity and the coach is clueless yoooh.
True members,one thing coach is telling the true about is that Sundowns is a big team.W e are to big for him to coach. Management fired Mokoena and Manqoba for what they deemed unconvincing results and poor performance.My questions to them are? is the results convincing,is the team performing better now than under the previous coaches ? were Rulani and Manqoba fired because they are Africans?
He’s busy telling us that there’s ambience amongst the players whereas the fringe players they know it very well that they won’t play and I’m sure it’s him who said Ndamane must remain at Galaxy after we signed him because he’s obsessed with South Americans.
Where that Mokoena who used to shoot thunderbolt outside eighteen area.Another thing that is boring is Modiba and Allende where there’s setpieces they do that rubbish of them and I don’t know why they don’t stop it because it doesn’t yield any results. What are the video analyts said to Ronwen because the guy commits same errors every game but they are quiet we need a very good goalkeeper because Ronwen is on comfort zone.