Mamelodi Sundowns find themselves a few points shy of wrapping up the league, following their 1-0 victory against Cape Town Spurs on Tuesday evening at the Athlone Stadium. It was Lucas Ribeiro’s penalty kick that saw Masandawana collect all points on offer away from home.
It was the home side that pulled the first trigger of the match in the early minutes but Ronwen Williams cleared the ball to deny them an opener. The visitor’s first real chance came from captain Themba Zwane whose shot was stopped by the Spurs keeper.
The Brazilians were patient with their build-up and moving the Urban Warriors away from their third, which worked quite well for them. A chance at the backpost came from Ribeiro after it was headed to him but was chested away by the Cape Town Spurs defence.
A threatening chance by Neo Maema came but he couldn’t get it right from close range after the ball rolled a few inches wide. A breakthrough finally came before the halftime break through a penalty kick by Ribeiro to pit Downs in the lead, following a foul on Peter Shalulile inside the box.
The hosts showed great mental fortitude in the second half as they displayed attacking attributes and created more chances, putting Williams to work. They were dangerous in the area as they attempted to put the ball in the box but Maema made an important clearance to deny the home team a leveller. Another save by Mothobi Mvala, who was named man of the match, was made through a clearance.
The match concluded with both sides play end-to-end but it was Bafana Ba Style who walked out victorious to extend their lead at the top.
How we lined up: Williams, Mudau, Mashego, Kekana, Mvala, Mokoena, Mkhulise, Maema, Zwane ©, Ribeiro, Shalulile.
Subs: D. Onyango, B. Onyango, Aubaas, Mendieta, Esquivel, Maema, Matthews, Nku, Mabena.
Some of Sundowns players r fatigued &exhausted namely Shalulile,Zwane,Kekana,Mvala almost featured in every game in nations cup &AFL CUP.Bt is Sorino,Maema,Maule,Makena,Esquire,Mendieta fatigued?No!!!Rulani r u also fatigued 2 see the obvious?You’ve got this Nyoso Lorch annoyance of pushing him 4 a starting lineup and u take forever to replace him.We still not convinced that u can progress 2 the finals of this Champions League and u know the stakes r higher now Esperance wants 2 play in the Club world cup b4 complacency creeps to the players it seems as if u r the one who is complacent.Why have you changed the way the team play with slow build ups and fast transitions ,Rhulani wake up Sundowns is not ur small project but an ambitious football club we gain nothing with 1000 passes,go and take your great prize don’t spoil that u r a great coach. Still have a hope in u &we trust you 2 take us 2 the promised land
Our players are no longer enjoy playing football bcoz they a 100 pages of instruction every day which ,they are supposed to remember during the game which is not possible. Coach Downs has reached a stage where you need to tell the players to positively express themselves freely.Both Zwane and Mokoena of Downs are not the same as those of Bafana.At Bafana they play with lot of freedom hence they perform well for Bafana,Too much of anything is dangerous,be it good or bad,even you too much instructions.When was the last time you saw Zwane scoring or assisting for us.He scored or assisted many goals for Bafana in less than ten games than he did for us the whole season,hence i always say we over analyze our opponents than our own performance hence our play is deteriorating in every game.Soon rather than late we a going to run out of luck bcoz that’s the only thing winning us games currently.I think even the coach himself doubts if we can win champions league,you just can run into a broken car with a roadworthy vehicle in your lane when you can easily change a lane and say you are on the correct lane,that is the same as our fruitless ball possession.
I will always support the technical team but unfortunately this is not the right time to change the system. I might be wrong but there is just something that is not right, and not the excuse of fatigue and anxiety. We lack creativity , and have become so predictable 😴. We need the likes of mendieta and maema for that touch of class.
Mina members really I get frightened whenever We play recently because I don’t know what kind of soccer we are playing,it’s boring with more possession at our half with less goals per game.
Maybe our Management including our Technical Director must interven there are few games where I can say we play nice football with a lot of offensive play,the final against of Afl against Wydad,Mtn semifinal against Chiefs to me those were games we were spitting fire others were like we are forced to play boring at its best.
If others are fatigued rest them and put others,there are good strikers at our DDC team,Rhulani can field them why are we waiting for to introduce them.Barca is using a 17 year old defender let alone Lamal but thina we don’t trust them even tomorrow we will struggle to beat AmaTuks until the referee come to our rescue.
Please give fair opportunity to players like Serino, Mendieta and Mbule, Zungu. We are not hunger to win. If we want to be like Ahly we need to win everything