Peter Shalulile and Lesiba Nku were the heroes on Tuesday night when Mamelodi Sundowns defeated Royal AM 2-0 in the return fixture at the Harry Gwala Stadium. The Shalulile that scored the deciding goal in the first leg of the season which was played on Saturday, was no different when Bafana Ba Style travelled to Durban for the second leg, this time around, with Nku also adding his name on the scoresheet.
Downs had the upper hand from the time the match kicked off and they created danger in the early minutes. It was Zuko Mdunyelwa who created the first dangerous chance when he made a good run to the final third. He then shot a decent cross to Shalulile but the timing was a bit offbeat.
Another opportunity to open the scoring came from Neo Maema but the ball hit the woodwork to deny him a goal. Despite the defending the hosts displayed, a breakthrough for Masandawana eventually came through Shalulile shortly before the break. It was Nku who kept the ball alive, sending it to Shalulile in front of goal. Shalulile then pulled a cracking acrobatic shot that hit the tongue of the net to make it 1-0 at the break.
The Brazilians continued with their dominance and maintained the momentum in the second half as they continued to look for a goal that will help in extending their lead. Another scoring opportunity presented itself when Shalulile cut inside to find Sphelele Mkhulise but Mkhulise could not get a clean shot as the Thwihli Thwahla defence made sure of it.
Bafana Ba Style’s persistence to find more goals finally paid off on the 74th minute when Nku made it two for his side. He found an opening from the right flank and bended the ball into the bottom right corner.
There were moments where the home side gave the Downs defence some discomfort in their box but all the opportunities were cleared to maintain a clean sheet.
In the closing minutes of the match, a penalty kick was awarded to the visitors after a handball in the box. Marcelo Allende took the shot but it went off the target, which was the last kick of the night. The next stop for Masandawana will be the winelands when they face Stellenbosch FC on Saturday afternoon.
How we lined up: D. Onyango, Mdunyelwa, Modiba, Mvala, Aubaas, Mkhulise, Mbule, Maema, Matthews, Nku, Shalulile.
Subs: February, B. Onyango, Mashego, Maboe, Allende, Mabena, Mendieta, Lorch, Morena.
Thanks for the win yesterday but my concern is,do our players or all Psl players practise how to take freekicks at the gym,why I’m asking that because it’s rare for our players to score them here in SA unlike in other leagues where its like a penalty to them,they just kick it for the sake of kicking it no technique and it’s worries me a lot.
Lastly pls our Technical team next season choose the following,specialists in taking freekicks,corners and penalties not every player must come and want to imposed himself when it’s setpiece and we know Mvala is good in taking penalties but Allende just jump everybody and wanted it to me it was annoying,let’s be professionally like our counterparts in other countries.
I wonder what our Technical team or Management when they see our development players excelling in other teams whereas we didn’t believe in them,I’m talking about Maloisiane of Stellies and Maleboge Modise of Chippa and if we keep on buying and not believing on our own we are still gonna loose more of our own development players.
Muzi I agree with u when it comes 2 not believing in our youngsters. Firstly Keagan Allan why is not at the club.Sibanyo,Phewa,then no one including Mngqithi who believed in Margerman like the way Tebogo Mokoena was given a fair chance Again Mabena can b sidelined just 2 select a headless chicken from another club even if he comes with no assist or a goal the whole season.But again coaches r under pressure from different agents who want their players 2 b selected &b playing every week. To a certain extent our coach is playing a dead rubber league now bt continues 2 field fatigued players.But Madrid who already won the league like us r selecting second fiddle teams 2 feature their fringe players.On the other hand we have an injured player in Tebogo who featured in a meaningless fixture.I thought Ighordaro was a teenager when he arrived at Sundowns &last year or season he scored 10 goals 4 Chippa United bt isn’t good 2 score 4 Sundowns,our technical team is crazy neh.
In Zulu there’s a saying which says “inkunzi isematholeni”which translate the future is upon the youngsters hope I explained it correctly.
Really sometimes it’s painful what is happening to our team,we’ll keep on buying up until when only God knows,look at Chiefs they’ve got the player I admire a lot hope oneday we will get him by the name of Samkelo Zwane,what a player and recently I had they enquire about the youngster at S.United by the name of Campbell whereas we got excellent youngsters at Downs,at DDC we got plenty of good players and there’s a big guy by the surname of Mthembu from Mandini if my memory serves me well what a player including Ramotsei,Carelse and exciting Letlhaku but they won’t play àt Downs they will be loaned to one team to another till they retire like Msani and Phewa etc even that Mofokeng of Bucs we’ve got better players than him at Downs,but who are we asinamali we will only talk nje.