Mamelodi Sundowns put on a great display of football to topple Orlando Pirates in a crunch clash at Orlando Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Masandawana put three goals past The Buccaneers to retain the top spot in the DStv Premiership after momentarily falling to second spot. The Brazilians went to the game after not registering a win in four games and they fabulously got the win. This is the third win over the Bucs in the current season, a double in the league, with a cup win.
The clash saw Peter Shalulile, Ricardo Nascimento and Kermit Erasmus making it into the starting eleven and that showed the intention was to dominate the game from the first whistle.
The home side was the first one to draw blood in the early minutes of the game as they had a free-kick which was taken by Vincent Pule but Denis Onyango was on par to calmly claim it without any struggles. The Brazilians picked up pace and Aubrey Modiba found himself in a good area and delivered a telling cross which had to be deflected away for a corner. Lebohang Maboe tried his luck with a volley but his effort did not trouble Wayne Sandilands. Amabhakaniya kept pushing and in the twenty-third minute tried to get something outside the box but Onyango was alert to make the save. The first half had all the drama but no goal as both sides went to the half locked at 0-0.
A forced substitution at the start of the second half saw Erasmus off and being replaced by Gift Motupa due to an injury. It took eleven minutes for Bafana Ba Style to find the back of the net through captain Ricardo Nascimento via the penalty spot after the referee awarded Mamelodi Sundowns a penalty, this was his first goal in the DStv Premiership. Even with the one goal lead, Masandawana kept on putting pressure on Pirates and Shalulile made an acrobatic attempt but his shot sailed over the bar. The counter-pressing game of The Brazilians was on point and yielded a goal after Motupa pressed at the front and set up the Namibian international to score the second of the day and his tenth for the season.
With the game opening up, the home side tried to find that elusive goal Masandawana were awarded a free kick in the last ten minutes of the game and up stepped Lyle Lakay who came in as a sub to kill the game and to score his third for the season. The win saw the defending champions reaching the fifty points mark after twenty- four games and reclaiming the top spot after twenty-four hours at position two. Midfielder Sphelele Mkhulise was crowned Man of the Match for his fine performance on the day.
The next game for Mamelodi Sundowns is against Maritzburg United on Wednesday and kick-off is at 15:00.
How we lined up: Onyango, Morena, Lebusa, Nascimento ( Onyango 82′), Modiba ( Lakay 64′)., Coetzee ( Mvala 88′), Maboe, Mkhulise, Zwane ( Mkhuma 88′), Erasmus ( Motupa ‘ 45), Shalulile
Subs: Mweene, Jali, Mkhuma, Onyango, Lakay, Mudau, Kapinga, Motupa, Mvala
I’m appealing and kneeling down to the Wiseman to please from now on Shalulile must partner with Motupa upfront, what a combination and they’re busy harassing Bucs defenders even in a game against Ali Aihly play them.
Lastly pls tell Maboe to stop being selfish and another thing Morena is not giving us anything in terms of going toward he’s a poor crosser of the ball he’s only good on defending.
Nice win but its not over let’s keep on fighting till the end.Kby forever
Football isn’t for cowards,we have all the ammunition to dismantle any team,unless the technical team be more brave like they did today andstart the two of Motupa,Shaulile or Erasmus going forward then we are going nowhere.Mkuma and Motupa should start on Wednesday,their hard work should be recognised and Zwane should start on the bench,the poor guy is tired and we take too long to replace him,he’s not indispensable.Look at the many chances we created since the introduction of Motupa and Mkuma,how we used counter attacks effectively,Pirates could not cope with it(Motupa,Mkuma,Shaulile Mkhulise and Maboe),that should be our pairing in the next game,we need to suffocate our opponents,especially at home.Had the technical team been brave like today we would have wrapped up the league and would be playing the final next weekend.We have one special weapon that no team has in the league,players who are comfortable on the ball and we are not using that to our advantage.It is like Fararri loosing a race to an Uno Fire bcoz the Fararri driver drives 20 and UNO fire drives 120.Our technical team was afraid to unleash this rocket.I’m still feeling the pain of loosing to TTM after the hard work we did against Pirates and also loosing our unbeaten run to a very weak team like Chiefs.You nearly did the same mistake again when Erasmus was injured in the 1st half by trying to introduce Jali,I was like here we go again,you can’t replace a more offensive player by a defensive one.Hope you learned your lesson,we can’t afford to regress from today’s performance.Congratulations for a big win,to the technical team,nice team selection and whoever brought Motupa for Erasmus I salute him bcoz it was the only nice thing to do,that eased pressure on Shaulile and he’s not afraid to turn defenders.Th other thing I noticed is that we are more organized at the back when Nascimento is playing.Pls,pls use the skill,pace,intelligence,energy and hard work of Mkuma and Motupa to make us reach the finish line.
Seconded member I concur with you,its not that we don’t want them to coach our team but we saw something when they messes up,even today that ball crossed by Modiba and pass the head of Zwane if it was Affonso surely it will be a good goal and we also need the offensive of Kapinga and Vila to unlock Maritzburg United defence not Sirino that one must sit on grandstand he’s boring.
Well done now please keep the same team against Maritburg they are good team we need to be at our best
Our Springbok is back. He was the difference today. He’s without doubt the PSL’s Player of the Season should we win the league. He always give us plenty of opportunities upfront and today he didn’t disappoint.
Thanks guys and all the who comment before me, I want second you members motupa and shalulile put a lot pressure to the opposition so keep that combination on Wednesday we need to win all the remaining matches
I agree with all you guys .Lets treat each match as final (Shaulile & Gift) can harrass the backline . We must score goals earleir especial with small teams to demotivate them and make them to play instead of defending like TTM did
Fans all over the world think coaching is as simple as running their mouths .
coaches,players and everyone involved at Sundowns thank you very much for your efforts and everything you sacrifice to make us happy.kabo yellow