Mamelodi Sundowns’ winning streak in the Betway Premiership has been broken following a 1-0 defeat against Polokwane City at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Rise and Shine’s 82nd-minute goal was the match decider, seeing Masandawana remain second on the log standings after five matches.
The first stanza lacked clear-cut chances from both sides despite runs being made into both ends to see goals. The first chance was created by Rushine De Reuck, who made a powerful run to the box but was quickly blocked before the ball could find the back of the net.
That chance would prompt the hosts to retaliate, but Denis Onyango was quick to react as he went off his line to quickly snatch the ball and deny them an opener. More chances from them would follow, but a busy Onyango would not allow the ball to go past him. The sluggish start to the match saw the two sides go to the interval with a goalless draw.
In the early minutes of the second half, Masandawana had a few opportunities, but the Polokwane City backline was solid and ensured that the ball didn’t see the face of the box. In the 60th minute, Iqraam Rayyners had a chance to pull one back for his side but was unable to connect well with Teboho Mokoena’s ball.
Polokwane City remained compact and started to look dangerous on the counterattacks, but it was a free kick from the left that saw them take the lead in the 82nd minute. Bafana Ba Style pushed for a goal to level matters towards the end of the play, but City held on to their lead to hand the visitors their first league defeat.
The Brazilians will have an opportunity to get things right next week when they meet the Polokwane-based side in the return fixture, but for now, they will shift their focus to their home fixture taking place on Wednesday against Cape Town City.
How we lined up: Onyango, Lebusa, Coetzee, De Reuck, Tiwani, Allende, Maboe, Morena, Matthews, Rayners, Mabena.
Subs: Pieterse, Mokoena, Sales, Kodisang, Mkhulise, Shalulile, Maema, Kekana, Mudau.
I was listening to the head coach on postmatch interview where he he knew Polokwane is dangerous on setpieces but my question why he didn’t prevent that on the first place by putting Mvala instead of Lebusa or de Reuck,sometimes we cry for certain players to be fielded but come match day they just disappoint us big time and Mqnqoba’s downfall is rotating almost the entire squad I don’t know he is pleasing everyone or he wants to refresh his players but this thing will catch up with him sooner than later.
On Onyango guys let’s release him we can’t accommodate all our former players to our team even they’re retiring,everytime when he’s on the field he just concede which means we must score many goals once he’s on the field.
Manqoba and your technical team pls don’t make our enemies to rejoice and wants you out,field the correct personnel all the time if you rotate don’t rotate with almost eight players in a game it kills our rhythm,Kby forever.
Denis Onyango’s time is gone bt ppl like Mngqithi like 2 b social workers by rewarding nonsense at the same time gambling with their careers &how I vouched 4 him 2 b given an opportunity bt foolishness gets the better of him.He excludes Mvala as if he ddnt c the risk Lebusa is,beaten 4 pace &4 strength and overpowered by strikers.I don’t want 2 lie Mngqithi is seeing another thing yet does an opposite of what is seeing.Aaubas is there bt chooses Moboe,Mkhulise is there bt chooses not 2 substitute Allende when we c the boy isn’t his usual this year,Mngqithi just chooses 2 reward ppl.Jody February is supposed 2 b our second goal minder.Then u r talking about ppl who deals with aerial balls bt u leave one of the taller guys &very young in Kegan Johannes who can’t b beaten 4 pace like Lebusa and Kekana do.Manqoba do the right thing stop being stupid.
Its really frustrating. Mvala had good perfomances but he is benched against polokwane. Not sure what this is all about. We.cannoy be talking bug words like periodisation when he just came back. I dont to mention names but defensively we all can see that we have a serious problem.
We strive to support the coach, but the last Polokwane game was one of the most heartbreaking experiences I’ve ever witnessed. To see our team with no shots on goal is something I can’t remember happening in the last decade. This raises serious concerns. It feels like our technical team is experimenting without a clear direction. Tiwani keeps looping the ball forward, and I lost count of how many times we surrendered possession that way. This has to be a coaching decision, and the technical team must take responsibility.
This was the worst performance I’ve seen in years, and our inconsistency this season is deeply troubling. What is truly happening to our beloved team? Are we trying to play fast football like Pirates, or do we want to frustrate opponents by maintaining possession? I see a different Downs, and this shift feels like it’s taking us away from what made us great. Can we please return to our roots and focus on patient build-ups? We need our identity back, coach.
Manqoba Bucs won today and it’s a six point gap and pls don’t tell us about a game in hand.
You made this difficult for you hope you’ll get out of this easily otherwise the pressure and anxiety will be your daily bread.
I hope Johannes wasn’t smashed by a train he’s available you can partner him with Mvala and just for once Allende mustn’t start we have Neo or Mkhulise whom can play that position now all our games will be finals till the season ends.
I thought Manqoba is going to take us to the next level as he was with us for 8 years plus, but seems is new in the team and instead of adding a value but is putting us in a deep pit, we are loosing the system like Kaizer Chiefs and is going to be difficult for us to recover… He is proving to be a failure…. We respect Shasha he did good for us but now he is over we can’t keep on bringing him again and again, we are not building any thing because we built long time ago… I doubt is going to beat Eric Tinker today…
I was against the appointment of Manqoba because he was demoted owing to poor performance and unconvincing results so they said.I wanted a coach who doesn’t know the players,who was going to make selection fairly.After his appointment i supported him. What he is doing is unacceptable,you can’t keep changing the team like a taxi driver giving a change to the passengers,you can’t say you are refreshing a team when there’s less than ten games played.Hard working players like Aubaas are constantly overlooked for no reason.Some decisions made by management and coach are very much questionable,you can’t loan out Mbule when you want someone to take over from Zwane and keep out young Ighadoro when Peter is finished.You can’t expect your 10 year old car to perform the same way like when it was still new tn years ago.There’s no future plan at our team hence we still prefer Onyango over Jude.We chose to tolerate mistakes made by old players than young players who are still growing.You will always hear Peter need our support when the same support is not given to young players.My verdict on the team judging from what i have seen this far is,the coach is either confused by the galaxy of stars around him or the team is too big for him.Damage control is needed before is too late,we shouldn’t be in denial when the writing is on the wall in black and white for everybody to see.