It was a titanic tussle at the Mbombela Stadium in a two-goal affair where Mamelodi Sundowns shared the spoils with TS Galaxy on Tuesday night. It was Peter Shalulile who scored the late goal to level matters for his side.
This return fixture promised exciting and intense football and that’s exactly what it delivered for the spectators. With The Rockets wanting to retain their defiant home record of being unbeaten this season, the Brazilians were equally working for three points to maintain their unbeaten run this season.
From the kick-off whistle, both teams applied high press and no one was holding back. While Masandawana controlled large spells of possession, it was the home side that had more goal opportunities, particularly in the first half. Out of the three shots created by the hosts in the first stanza, three were on target, sending the Downs goalkeeper, Ronwen Wiliams to work. His sheer anticipation and timing helped him make some heroic saves to deny the physical TS Galaxy side a goal.
Downs also posed a few threats in the TS Galaxy box, with Rivaldo Coetzee also joining on pulling triggers by sending the keeper to work with a long-range strike, but the ball got smacked away. As intense as the first half was with the box-to-box football, it produced no goals.
The second stanza was more dramatic with the multiple clear-cut chances from both ends but the goals were just not coming. With TS Galaxy continuously knocking on the door, they were able to find the back of the net on the 78th minute to break the deadlock.
After weathering a storm from the hosts, a resilient Mamelodi Sundowns side finally pulled one through Shalulile’s header to level matters, seven minutes later, in the mouthwatering encounter.
It was far from one-way traffic despite the two goals, with both sides continuing to pose threats in the box. The game however, ended with the two sides having to share spoils in Mpumalanga.
How we lined up: Williams, Mudau, Modiba, Coetzee, Lebusa, Mbule, Mkhulise, Allende, Matthews, Nku, Shalulile.
Subs: Tshabalala, Mvala, Lunga, Mokoena, Maboe, Mabena, Maema, Esquivel, Morena.
Mokwena should refrain from stooping to that old boy’s level,the guy behave like adolescent teenager.He has won nothing in his football career,most people play soccer not many win a trophy.He is even forgetting that he donated 4 points to Downs,how can you say someone must learn from you when you are 29 points behind him and said on public TV that is a win to you drawing with the very same person you say should learn from? It takes a fool not to notice who the real fool is,he even went to say finishing in the top 4 would be like winning a league to him because he knows he will never win a league,went on about financial muscles, you can’t expect a billionaire to build a shack just because you only have money for building shack.The guy is a disgrace to SA football,he behaves like he is wearing nappies.He is really an attention seeker.
Coming back to the game the starting line up was fine,i was confident we will not lose that game but after the introduction of Mvala and Maema i started to doubt if we will get anything from that game,the game was tense,very fast and then you take out midfielders,yes they both had yellow cards but,bringing a defender who has no timing,no ball control and guaranteed a yellow in every game he plays was an awful move,he first collected yellow card then,missed a ball with his foot later on with his head,I’ve watched soccer for many years and i have never seen a professional player missing a ball with his head.You can’t partner Lebusa and Mvala and shift Riva the only central defender with football intelligence when we needed him the most.It was simply to introduce Maboe and Mokoena and leave the defense as it was and then bring in Mabena and Morena then we could have easily won that game. Maema always loses the ball cheaply is high time Mabena play more minutes than him,the young man always delivers with the 5 minutes he always gets,let us play players on merit not age nor favoritism please.This the reason why i always say when we analyse the game we seen what we wanted to see and ignore the truth.I was not even surprised when Maema was not even on the bench against Stellies and i thought the technical team saw something in him because he was terrible in the 1st half against Royal AM,he lost too may balls.It is not like we are against our own player but just been honest and pointing out their short falls.
I totally agree member. I think the mistake the technical team made was to play highline like they did against Stellies. We were always going to be exposed at the back in terms of speed. I’m wondering what’s happening with Katlego Mashego, he didn’t do too bad against Zebbies and I thought he was going to cement his position at the left back. The coach could’ve deployed Morena there as well, but alas, our coach is forever experimenting. Coming to the heated scuffle after the game, I think Rhulani is playing into the hands of Ramovic, and this might lead him into hot water with Sundowns’ management. Rhulani just need to accept that you can’t wrestle with a pig in a mud. A lot of coaches envy him for the team and resources he’s coaching, but he wants to spoil all of the that because of an attention-seeker. On one hand he’s saying you don’t need millions to win anything, but on the other he says we’re winning because of the financial muscle.
Mathews and Nku should not allow themselves to be predictable to the opponent
Wow Downs4ever&Dalom what a spot on analysis especially with regard to TS Galaxy coach, Rhulani, Ramovic played u 2 his gallery&u succumbed 2 that trap,Rhulani if a madman or a lunat takes off his clothes u don’t u don’t follow suit and go naked thats what u Rhulani did yesterday.Again 2 substitutes in Mvala&Maema nearly costs us but the mission of the invincible is still on.
I hate it when people are talking nonsense about our beloved team and when we tell the truth some idiots are going to say we are racists or xenophobic but the truth will remain true and people must learn to think before they talk,if we can check most people who are always talking about Downs millions are foreigners and white people because they are jealous that a young black person can achieve what they will never achieve even they ca coach until they 100 years.First it was Hunt always taking about Sundowns money and how Downs should have hammered his kids with the squad we having forgetting that when we were signing many players and losing he said we sign anything that moves and now is this ts coach.They are forgetting that we can never be equal on this planet,even themselves the are not sleeping in the houses or driving the cars same as the cleaners at their respective teams.Some were even saying Motsepe doesn’t know soccer and he wanted to sign Makhayanthini,and i told them that soccer is a business and Motsepe is a successful business man,now that we are reaping the rewards of our blood and sweats they come up with nonsense. And also the likes of William Shongwe,Mark Glesson and Stanton Fredicks they are not impartial when commentating our game,when when referee makes mistakes against us they quick to say is right without watching slow motion,even after replay when is evident that he was wrong they will still maintain he is right,even the referees are targeting our players,i mean what was Mbule’s yellow card for because he blocked the ball against the leg of a weak player with no studs out.The boy who scored against us last night he wrestled Mkhulise downs and he was already on a yellow card the the rule says holding and tagging a bookable offences we want to see if the referee is going to be suspended.We have a joke of administrators in the psl,you can’t suspend a referee for failing to produce a yellow card for the foul Lunga committed,it wasn’t even malicious or is because it is a Sundowns player? Mabasa nearly broke a leg of a Richards Bay play and he didn’t even get a yellow card but there is no noise like Lunga’s foul. Masandawana family mostly players and technical team we must learn that whenever we play it is always us against South Africa because of your achievements.
Eish Downs4ever this hate they had against us is very painful and annoying even at our workplace people talk bad about us but the sin is that our owner it’s a billionaire and they even says Downs doesn’t have money but Motsepe and you wonder who’s the owner of that team.
Even the Pitso they are worshipping now they used to call him names while he still our coach and they will do that to Rhulani once he goes.
There’s this thing they used to say Rhulani is successful because of the good players we have and my question is will Pep and Ancelot be good to coach those teams that are poor and fighting relegation the answer is big NO.
Anyway no problem if we are hated Downs are rich since the days of those two doctors and the billion is coming basazosinyanya more than before,Kby forever.