Mamelodi Sundowns were held to a 1-1 draw by rivals, Orlando Pirates, in a sold-out affair and a highly anticipated fixture on Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld.
The visitors had shown a lot of fight in the opening minutes of the match as they looked to break the line, but the Downs rearguard remained steadfast to deny them a goal.
The first attempt came from the Soweto-based side, but the effort missed the target and went wide. Another big chance came when Grant Kekana looked to clear the ball as it got driven into the area, but he missed it. With a one vs one with RonwenWilliams, Pirates fired a powerful shot that Williams caught easily.
Masandawana also came close to finding the back of the net early in the game when Aubrey Modiba made a shot into the area. Peter Shalulile redirected the ball with a header, but it was too soft as it landed in the goalkeeper’s bucket hands. After continuously knocking on the door, Shalulile finally scored a beautiful goal to break the deadlock in the 20th minute. On the near post, he took a shot, but the goalkeeper parried the ball away. He then pounced on the rebound to put it past the keeper.
Fifteen minutes later, on the 35th minute, from attacking a high ball on the edge of the box after Downs had cleared the ball from the danger area, the visitors struck a powerful volley that hit the underside of the bar and went over the line to level matters. This had come after the Buccaneers had consistently looked for a goal and had been threatening the Downs’ defence. Both sides went to the interval deadlocked.
The second stanza continued at a high tempo with both sides searching for a winner. Early in the half, Pirates almost produced a goal from a solo run. When their defender shot from a tight angle, Williams caught the ball.
Both sides kept the fight in the middle of the park as they fought for dominance. Bafana Ba Styled could have buried the game in the closing stages of the match. They had kept the ball forward, but the visitors held firm at the back for a stalemate.
Despite a lively performance between the two sides, neither team could claim a victory, and they had to settle for a point apiece.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Mudau, Cupido, Kekana, Modiba, Aubaas, Allende, Santos, Sales, Shalulile, Matthews.
Subs: Onyango, Lebusa, Mdunyelwa, Basadien, Mkhulise, Adams, Ntsabeleng, Maseko, Rayners.
Once the match report takes almost 24 hours being posted after the game you must know that something is not right in the office and they’re ashamed to post that article.
I once become jealous when I see some other team’s youngsters playing and performing so beauty whereas our own are just idling on grandstand every time.
Now it’s obvious other players are there to provide assistance in the gym or a practice match to the regulars because it’s always the same starting line up and our coach is so much arrogant during off-season he didn’t sign good or enough players whereas others were busy signing good players. It’s a known fact that Downs are thin upfront we’ve got too many middlefielders,this is not Sundowns whom we attracted to many years ago this one is so boring to say the least.
Sundowns is too big for Cardoso and he doesn’t know the philosophy of Mamelodi Sundowns and he will never understand it. Sundowns is the team that believes in its culture, once you try to change it then you already failed. Keep the ball as much as you can, carpet football to have a direction, no rush… Play the ball to frustrate opponent… If your opponent packed the bus just go back with a ball to start afresh… Sundowns is to big for this man and Cardoso doesn’t have a solid style of play because today he will play like this and tomorrow will different… We don’t care which teams you once coached but Sundowns is too big for you… You are a small boy with big head
After so many years of success with local coaches what caused Sundowns to think that we need a Lilly white coach from Europe.To show that Cardoso is useless he knew that Mokoena is suspended bt choses 2 use him against Remo Stars,again Letlhaku and Ntshabeleng were supposed to b in that game considering that that game was a dead rubber if we beat Remo in their backyard.Motsepe and Mabunda r just prolonging the stay of Cardoso otherwise there’s nothing here its just an empty vessel making a lot of noise.Its official that we wll never win any big game excepting cheap excuses.The Pirates coach spoke the truth by implying that they shud hav won the game.Always Cardoso fails 2 bring from the bench a player who’ll change the complexion of the game,we just play useless ball possession with Kekana,Williams and Allende the biggest culprits.And these 3 fools have never learnt anything from CWC childish mistakes at the back.I always wondered what so special about Adams what is the purpose of bringing this boy in any match bcoz he brings nothing at all.
Pirates coach, as new as he is, has already won a cup with them, just saying.
Ours is just excuse after excuse, we are just adding numbers in cup competitions. For the first time in 8 years, the league will be under threat as well, mark my words!!!!
This was the first time in the history of our that i saw us playing with fear at home.Were not playing for a win but playing for not to lose. Chaine was on holiday,it was only Shalulile and Santos who were fighting,i feel sorry for Santos, he is playing with cows,when he has the ball he releases it immediately and when someone makes a forward run he passes him but when is him who makes a run the cows he is playing with turn and pass the keeper.Next season we must get rid of these lazy antiques get get players who are hungry. There no order in the team,the yellow cards received by Modiba,Aubaas,Allende and Mudau shows that.Monna wa team Williams was back to his usual nonsense,he wasted time like we were leading 2-0,he doesn’t deserve to be our captain,people use their hard earned money to go to the stadium to watch team scoring goals not watch keeper playing with the ball at the back,there is nothing special about him he doesn’t know ho to keep a clean sheet.The less said about the coach the better,truth be told Cardoso choose the wrong career,he will make a good PRO or a spokesperson, for football he is got zero knowledge.His favoritism is destroying our team,Sales played nonsense against Remo,and again he played nonsense against Pirates and he is still going to be in the starting 11 on our next game,other players play good and the next game they are in the stands.Allende runs the whole game non stop but at the end of the game you can’t point out the good thing he contributed.Young Mokoena played good but he is nowhere to be seen now because of only his age,Ntshabeleng played good but next game he was nowhere to be seen and also Mothiba played well against Remo star,where is he now?Guess what we are going to see Reisihno in the starting 11 when his suspension end.If we can win a cup this season i will know for sure that God supports Sundowns.This team is going nowhere under the current technical team and the clueless management.Sometimes i laugh when i read that we have promoted a development play knowing very well they are not going to get a chance to play.The clueless management doesn’t learn,most of the time they spent millions to sign useless European when we can use the players we have developed.We fail to beat teams that are using development players yet we are afraid to use our own you players.To my idiots of management,you can’t lot of money on development and at the same time use more money to buy players,it makes no sense.Members we just have to wait and seen where our team will end when the season finishes but one thing for sure the future looks bleak.
We would be far by now had we kept Manqoba as a coach. Most of you guyz were supporting this coach when he was appointed. I went back to that article and checked your comments again. This Sundowns should rate the worst in the history of the team, even the Neeskens team was better, just that they were unfortunate at times. The Motsepe family is killing our team because of their hatred of black people, there was no need at all to get rid of Manqoba, and I’ll never forgive them for unceremoniously sacking him. At times I want to believe that Sundowns deserve all the bad things happening to them because of the treatment they meeted to Manqoba.
All I can say these days, we are fast becoming useless and less respectable under Cardoso and It seems leadership is non-existent at Sundowns these days
Morning masandawana, no trophy this season as long as we keep this plumber