Mamelodi Sundowns have recorded another victory at home following a 3-0 win over Magesi FC on Sunday afternoon at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
From the beginning, the meeting proved to be a challenging one for both sides as they played end-to-end football, but it was the visitors who pulled the first trigger. Ronwen Williams managed to smack the effort away, but it is Malibongwe Khoza who swept up the danger after the short clearance by Williams.
Tashreeq Matthews also almost opened the scoring for his side when he fired a shot from the left flank, but the goalkeeper dived to the far post to deny Matthews.
In the 22nd minute, Kutlwano Letlhaku broke the deadlock for the hosts after he connected with Thapelo Morena’s miscue and punched it past the goalkeeper.
Masandawana continued to test the Magesi defence, and just before the half-hour mark, a corner kick effort saw Arthur Sales looking to find the back of the net through a header, but the keeper tipped it away, nearly missing it.
Morena also tested the goalkeeper when he kept the ball alive after the Magesi defense tried to keep it out. He managed to bypass the goalkeeper and got it to Aubrey Modiba, whose shot was blocked by the keeper. The hosts headed to the interval with the upper hand.
With one man short, Dikwena tsa meets had to work twice as hard, and they didn’t settle for defending. In the second stanza, they threatened the Downs rearguard but just couldn’t get it right.
In the 63rd minute, coach Miguel Cardoso made a triple change, introducing Themba Zwane, Thapelo Maseko, and Siyabonga Mabena, who had an instant impact. On the 64th minute, just after the substitutions, Morena – after keeping the ball alive – crossed to Iqraam Rayners, who doubled the advantage for Masandawana. Ten minutes later, after being awarded a free-kick, Modiba took the setpiece and Rayners redirected the ball into the net with his head to make it three goals for Downs.
Another big opportunity to make it four goals presented itself when Maseko drove the ball into the area, but when he saw how the defence tightened around him, he handed the ball to Mabena, whose powerful shot sailed above the bar.
Bafana Ba Style concluded the match with a big chance from Rayners’ powerful shot, but his effort went wide.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Morena, Khoza, Lebusa, Modiba, Aubaas, Allende, Letlhaku, Sales, Rayners, Matthews.
Subs: Piertese, Lunga, Mvala, Zwane, Mkhulise, Adams, Mabena, Maseko, Shalulile.
In as much we won the game our game model has changed, no carpet football no piano and shoe shine. It’s just boring to watch Sundowns hence supporters do not turn to the stadiums. Bring back Rulani. Our team is run like a spaza shop you can’t have Khuliso out there not playing decision making is a mess. Look how Mbule has transformed after leaving us
I agree with Luvuyo it’s really boring to watch Sundowns games nowadays.
Solution 2 the problem fire Cardoso and Fleming Berg,u can’t continually pay useless ppl and create ridiculous posts like this sporting director rubbish.Mbule,Coetzee,Nasir&Lorch can’t play 4 Sundowns yet we entertain the mediocrity bcoz its done by a white guy.Whats so special abt Cardoso?What r we expecting,bcoz there’s no surprise here.
No cohesion in the first half and an improved second half.I was impressed with the hunger shown by Maseko,Aubaas had a perfect game,Khoza’s over confident will take his career nowhere and at least he payed well as a central midfielder.My main concern is our clueless coach,he is unable to identify the strength of his players.We saw at Bafana Mokoena plays well when he is got someone covering him,he is able to play as a box to box midfielder.Our coach spends most of the time with the players more than Broos but, Broos understands them better with the short time he spends with them hence i’m saying this coach is clueless.This coach doesn’t have a mind,he only uses the players he found other coaches using,i agree with Mfana,players like Nasir and Coetzee should never have left the team.The man is either he doesn’t understand SA football or football in general.I was so impressed about the comments of Pirates coach he said “i don’t play players the way i want them to play but i play them according to their strength”.You can’t expect players like Lamine or Mabena to just trap the ball and pass while the strength is to take players on,you must encourage them to dribble pass the players in order to eliminate numbers.Come Wednesday, in order to see an improvement from the last game’s 2nd half performance we are going to witness an ugly animal of a performance.