Mamelodi Sundowns managed to salvage a point in a highly contested Betway Premiership fixture on Wednesday night. A 1-1 draw against Siwelele at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium saw them conclude their year with a point.
Masandawawna did not have a great start to the match as coach Miguel Cardoso was forced into making an early substitution, following Grant Kekana’s injury. Keegan Johannes came in as the replacement in the fourth minute.
Just after 15 minutes of dominance and trying to get things right very early in the game, the visitors created their biggest chance. It came from Marcelo Allende’s clever setup in the area to Nuno Santos. Santos’s effort at goal, however, could not make a clean connection to find the back of the net.
After Downs’ dominance in the opening minutes of the match, Siwelele managed to snatch that away when they capitalised on untidy defending. After smelling danger and seeing the defenders struggling to clear the ball in the danger zone, RonwenWilliams came off the mark to clear the danger but was dispossessed by a Siwelele, who wasted no time to break the deadlock in the 27th minute.
The visitors came so close to levelling matters through Iqraam Rayner’s lovely cross intended for Miguel Reisinho. The Siwelele defence, however, intercepted the effort with a foot-punch to deny their opponents. Despite attempting to force a goal out of their hosts, Bafana Ba Style went to the interval trailing by a goal.
Thapelo Morena was introduced in the second stanza to inject pace into the attack. He was involved in a few scoring opportunities his side created inside the first ten minutes.
The very motivated hosts looked more dominant in the second half and were creating better chances. They almost doubled their advantage just after the hour mark, but the Downs rearguard denied them in front of goal.
Substitute Themba Zwane came close to drawing blood after a delivery inside the area by Arthur Sales. With the defence squeezing him, Zwane couldn’t get the opportunity on target as the ball sailed over the bar.
In the 74th minute, after continuously fighting, the Brazilians fought back through substitute Lebo Mothiba. After Rayners’ hesitation within a scramble, Mothiba hit a half turn to find the back of the net. A few minutes later, the visitors almost snatched the lead when Iqraam Rayners received the delivery inside the area. He just couldn’t get it right when his effort sailed over the bar.
Siwelele also almost snatched back their lead in the closing stages of the match when they dispossessed the Downs defence through the counter and made a run into the other half, but the offside flag was raised before the ball could land on the net. Their next effort came through a shot which was denied by Morena’s backheel.
Tashreeq Matthews supplied a delightful dink into the area. Mothiba connected to the ball with his head, but it went over the bar. After a hard-fought contest, Masandawanahad to settle for a point in Bloemfontein.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Mudau, Kekana, Cupido, Modiba, Mokoena, Allende, Reisinho, Santos, Rayners, Matthews.
Subs: Onyango, Johannes, Lunga, Morena, Mkhulise, Adams, Zwane, Sales, Mothiba.
I think this AFCON break is the perfect time for us to find a new coach because this one is taking us nowhere,what is happening now is exactly how Pitso gave the league to Wits by using the same 11 players for cup and league games,you could see Allende,Modiba,Mokoena,Santos,and Mudau were fatigued,the coach doesn’t select the team on merit but select the players he lovers.I doubt if Williams has matriculated because he has a brain of a grade R kid,a person with a developed mind can’t commit the same mistake over and over again,the granny is useless he doesn’t respect the club,supporters,management and his team mates,i think the team would do better without him and his coach.With this coach we are going lose every thing,for the first time in 9 years we are going to end the season empty handed.We lost our number one sport,our dominance of players in the national team,our young players are no longer playing and above all we lost our team because the one that is playing i don’t recognize it.Teams like Liverpool are paying the price for over relying on same starting 11.Honestly our management,Cardoso and Trump are same whatsapp group,they don’t respect African people.The way the team is playing if it was under African coach he would have been fired long time ago.You ca check the way he select his team,he plays ball playing players not offensive players.We were against the combination of Allende and Adams,now he just replaced Adams for Reisino but the pattern is still the same.Our management are naive if they think the team can win anything under Cardoso,he trimmed the team because he is too lazy so that he can spent more time at the salon to trim his beard.To really show that the man is clueless,in pre match interview when asked about the poor performance of team during away game he said some of the draws where away to Chiefs and Pirates whereas we drew with Pirates at home. Is that the coach who can take this team to greater heights?
U know what guys u are the party of this problem team facing while Rulan was here
Done excellent work u were busy complaining until your father Flaming listen u fire him he hire clueless Cardoso both Fleming & Cardoso are headless chicken
Member I fully concur with you,this fifa break pur team must employ the new coach when we come back that having used to the squad. This guy is clueless, selfish and racist I mean this players were playing in Algeria and he started with them whereas we got good players capable of winning us the games, no rotation late substitute and I didn’t wonder to see Kekana got injured because players are fatigue and overplayed.
Where’s Gomolemo Kekana and Tsiki to replace Matthews and Mokoena,the less said about that dog we call a goalkeeper the better he’s doing all this because he knows come match day he will start no young keeper to replace him.
Have you seen a team having eight or nine corners but failed to even scored one whereas at Downs we have a setpieces coach,wish Pirates to take this league so that we can come back to mother earth we thought the league is our perogative right to win it.
The good reason of winning formula for Barca and Bucs is them believing in youngsters.
I remember when Guardiola took over at senior team he released Deco and Ronaldinho inorder for him to have a healthy dressing room ,at Downs we have prima donnas especially those who came from Supersport United and another downfall of ours is keeping players for too long even they reach forty years like Onyango and are in mid thirties like Zwane,Lebusa,Mvala etc.
Downs DDC team has got good players and are second on the log with a good scoring record but our useless coaches will keep on saying the jersey is heavy for them how I wish our President is around because his son is failing us big time and you will hear them before end of the season they want to give Zwane another year because he’s our legend as if we owe him,if things continue like this Pirates will dominate our league till we come back to our senses and field hungry young players not this superstars whom they know they will be alway on starting line up irrespective of their performance.
Fully concur with you Muzi,we are like government were employees work until 60 years,we don’t refresh the team.You can’t run a company with old equipments and expect to be productive.We managed and coached by cowards, don’t sell and replace players.We need young and hungry players,the current crop of players are on comfort zone.Both management and coaches are controlled by players.We are the only team in the league that plays with very old players,even during the club World Cup we were one of the teams that played with old players.The youngest team Chelsea won the tournament and the 2nd youngest team PSG went to the finals.Our idiots of management didn’t learn anything from that, keep players long in the team like they furnitures.Our number one keeper and second choice keeper their total age is almost 80 and other teams have 4 players who their age combined don’t even reach 80.This is a painful joke.
You will hear our fellow Dawanas put pressure on the Management that Zwane must be given a two year contract because he is our legend whereas they knew it very well that Mshishi is injury prone age is not on his side.
The player we should have signed is none other than Emile Witbooi son of Surprise Ralani,even Comitis was prepared to give us that boy but our lack of vision Management didn’t see that now it’s tough to get him because he’s wanted in Europe.
We can blame Cardoso for results but our current crop of players are aging.
Today I saw an article that we may sign a 25 year old goalkeeper from Portugal and I was so much happy because Williams can know that he’s not bigger than Downs and Broos mustn’t tell us we deprived Williams an opportunity to be number one and the World Cup is around the corner.Our team comes first before Bafana,next month all this old players must be released.
Gusy, I beg to differ
Ted Dimitri was very criticised on this platform. Paul Dolezer, Pitso, Gordon Igesund, the list is endless. Can we at once support the team and the technical team please? Please don’t insult me, I dint insult anyone