A stunning brace from Peter Shalulile and a goal from Lucas Ribeiro has seen Mamelodi Sundowns claim three points at home following a 3-0 triumph over Cape Town City on Wednesday night at Loftus Versfeld. This win became Downs’ first against the Cape Town side since 2022.
Bafana Ba Style were back at home, after going away at the weekend to Polokwane, where they recorded their first league defeat. They made a return at Loftus Versfeld looking to bounce back and pick up maximum points, but first, they had to break an assertive Cape Town City whose high press was giving them problems in the early stages of the match.
The visitors triggered the first big chance of the match but Grant Kekana’s great surveillance helped deny them an opener as Kekana delivered the ball to Ronwen Williams.
The breakthrough came on the 16th minute through Peter Shalulile, who registered his first league goal. It was Lucas Ribeiro who dropped the ball in the pocket for Shalulile who then slotted it in the box beautifully. Masandawana would then launch more efforts inside the first 30 minutes of the encounter but none of the efforts would be fruitful.
After continuously knocking on the door with the misfired opportunities, the hosts were able to extend their lead through Lucas Ribeiro on the 37th minute. Khuliso Mudau made a game-changing cut back to Ribeiro who then shot a powerful finish to make it two for Downs. Despite their attempts to extend their lead even further, Masandawana would only head to the break with two goals ahead of their opponents.
In the second stanza, Shalulile was able to complete his brace on the 52nd minute. Aubrey Modiba – who had made beautiful runs in the second half – made a cross that found Iqraam Rayners who then made a short pass to Shaulile. Shalulile then chugged the ball in to take his side to three goals.
City were looking to find the back of the net in the final stages of the match. They made good attempts to get their chances on target, but Williams displayed good goalkeeping to keep a clean sheet. Both sides continued to look for goals but, in the end, it was the Brazilians who came out victorious, collecting the desired maximum points.
How we lined up: Williams, Kekana, Aubaas, Mvala, Mudau, Modiba, Maema, Allende, Ribeiro, Rayners, Shalulile.
Subs: Onyango, De Reuck, Coetzee, Lunga, Morena, Mkhulise, Kodisang, Lorch, Sales.
Firstly let me respond to Boh to the previous post,Mfowethu the reason Tebogo wasn’t playing was because he had accumulated three yellow cards if he was fielded and got another one on our next game against Chiefs he will be suspended.
Sometimes we as Downs fans including me we demand a lot or put them on unnecessary pressure by saying so and so must play forgetting it’s only eleven against eleven and I know we’ve got our favourite players that we want to see every game,and if the coach obliged and field everyone we loose our momentum instead of introducing them gradually and they’re still people that are crying about Rhulani just because they want nice football with a lot of passes too many backpasses with one nil scoreline look what’s happening to him in Morocco they’re insulting and throwing everything at him now because of nice football with no results.
Lastly this thing of watering the field too much is also disadvantage us because at the end it’s our players that are slippering too much if the pitch is watered why don’t they use the suitable boots for that occasion and just watch our next game we will be unstoppable not slippering because our opponents will not do that it’s boring serious I know they want the ball to flow nicely but it’s over watered.
Flawless performance.It was good to finally see Shalulile scoring brace.Enjoyed watching the ever hard working Aubaas dishing out a solid performance,just imagine the Mokoena and Aubaas combination our defense will be well protected.However i have 3 concerns,1 it seems as if we are Costa team and without him we are nothing,2 Williams constant passing of the ball in a dangerous position at the back,Aubaas got kicked because of Williams’silly middle passing at the back,3 Kodisang played well against Polokwane City,one expected to see him getting some more minutes.Lastly Mvala is playing good football,his passing are accurate he should only improve on his timing and it was pleasing to see Kekana running with the ball,you can’t play motionless like a robot. Goodluck on our next cup game.