After 90 minutes of a thrilling titanic tussle, Mamelodi Sundowns registered a 3-4 defeat against Borussia Dortmund in the FIFA Club World Cup on Saturday night at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Tashreeq Matthews orchestrated the first big chance of the match from the left flank, but the shot he struck was smacked away by the goalkeeper.
The German side looked to find the back of the net, but before entering the box, Grant Kekana cleared the ball, earning Dortmund a corner kick, which didn’t bring any goals.
In the tenth minute, Ribiero opened the scoring for Masandawna. He found himself in space and dribbled his way to the danger area, where he slotted the ball. Six minutes later, Downs’ lead was whacked out after Ronwen Williams made a short pass that was intercepted by the away side, who did not waste time and slotted it in to level matters.
Ribeiro was denied a goal through his double effort. As he was looking to record a brace, his shot got blocked. He quickly got a rebound, which was also blocked.
In the 34th minute, Dortmund snatched the lead through a header which came from the left flank. Just before the interval, Dortmund found the back of the net again from a rebound. The Pretoria-based side went to the break trailing by two goals.
The German-based side looked to open the restart with a goal but was cleared away, earning them a corner which didn’t amount to a goal.
Teboho Mokoena came close to making it two for his side following a free-kick awarded to Bafana Ba Style, but his effort was flicked off the wall and slightly tipped the crossbar before going over.
Shortly after, Dortmund found their fourth goal in the 59th minute. It came from a cross which was diverted off by Khuliso Mudau, directing the ball into the net to make it four goals.
A foul on Ribeiro saw Masandawana scoring their second goal in the 62nd minute, just three minutes after the Dortmund goal. Mokoena had taken the set-piece and flicked the ball into the area. Rayners found it, headed it, but his effort hit the woodwork. Luckily, he found the rebound and headed it into the net.
On the 90th minute, Kutlwano Letlhaku made an important pass to Lebo Mothiba who was in front of goal and made it three for Downs, also scoring his first goal in Brazilian colours. Despite looking for more goals to close the gap, Downs registered their first loss in the tournament.
How we lined up: Williams, Mudau, Cupido, Kekana, Lunga, Mokoena, Allende, Zwane ©, Ribeiro, Rayners, Matthews.
Subs: Onyango, Khoza, Lebusa, Modiba, Mvala, Morena, Mdunyelwa, Mkhilise, Adams, Maema, Sales, Aubaas, Letlhaku, Shalulile, Mothiba
I just cant stop to commend you boys, you made us super proud by displaying and showcasing our football in the world against a powerful club like Dortmund, you guys set the bar and the tone for other african players to understand and know that we can play in this level and we are no less than our European counterparts.You were confident and did not chicken out and that impacted positively to any african child who was watching that game yesterday.The belief in yourselves was just out of this world, and this is what we need to progress as africans in world tournaments.The scorching heat was a challange not only to BVB but also to us and I saw it on Rebeiro and Tebza and thanks to coach for making subs swiftly and we scored two goals immeditely thereafter.The Management must instruct scouts to go in Mali, Senegal or Nigeria to look for very tall and speedy centre backs if we want to be world beaters otherwise in other departments we are fine.If we had imposed ourselves against Pyramids the way we did yesterday we would have been champs by now, but that is water under the bridge, the coach must just find a balance between attacking and defending , play total football to attack and defend as a unit and that requires speedy players.I pray that the coach does not ho back to his negative gootball but just strike a balance in our play and unleash ou our players.
They’re three departments we need to strengthen this coming window period e.g buying another good goalkeeper that will keep that stupid goalkeeper of ours on the stand and that guy is none other than Ronaldo Leaner of Sekhukhune United a new Bafana keeper,what a goalkeeper and he’s still in twenties and promote Gomolemo Kekana to compete with Mokoena if we fail to buy Feisal Salum and a prolific striker to compliment Rayners and Mothiba.
I’m very much angry at Ronwen and the guy doesn’t learnt anything we used to cry about his casual and undermining the opponents but come the match day he repeats the very same mistakes all the time and our downfall was us leading and he got carried away thinking it’s over.
Even in the Champs league final he was doing this juggling the ball instead of just doing the basics and give our strikers the ball immediately and if my memory serves me well it’s only him on this tournament whom was penalised for delaying start up and the opponents got the corner kick and Mweene must reprimand him all of that,Kby forever
Very much proud of the gallant performance by the boys. We need to be truthful about what happened and call a spade a spade,all hell broke loose after a stupid mistake from a stupid player,that unforced error broke the morale of the whole team,we were on top of the game before that stupid mistake.It is unforgivable to make such a mistake at the highest level of the club competition,there is lots of money involved,a win or a draw would have meant more bonuses to the players.Williams is a goal keeper not a ball player and I’ve said it many times that his play lacks discipline and respect, that he doesn’t deserve to be our captain and I’m glad the technical team realised that and he’s no longer our captain.If he wants to be a ball player he must compete with other ball players,the technical team must bench in the next game.I’ve always said when your keeper makes more touches than your infield players then something is wrong,Williams made more touches than Zwane and Rayners and we had more useless ball possession than Dortmond but the won the game.The boy is working against the coach because you can see even by starting line up that the coach wanted to play on the front foot and only one player has other ideas,the exact same thing happened during final of the champions league, coach started with more offensive players and immediately after we take a lead he starts with his nonsense football.If members are not aware,watch other teams when playing from the back their keeper passes side ways not in the middle.The boy is arrogant thinks he knows better,his father Rulani is watching club World Cup on the TV because of playing useless possession football and I urge the technical team to put him in the stands on our next game.We can’t be held on ransom by one useless big headed player,our boys were demoralised by that stupid unforced error,there should be punitive measures for what he has done for the whole yellow nation.
The blunder by Williams was long over due &the biggest culprits of this dangerous play is Ronwen,Kekana,Mudau and Tebogo Mokoena &they got their match in Dortmund.At the expense of our emotions&support we were hurt at a crucial stage and the biggest one.By the look of things Dortmund was brought by our high school errors&we r going to live 2 regret 4 a longtime.You just ask why Ronwen always make a risky pass infront of his goals then he drank his medicine.Enough abt I have a firm belief that this was the game of the tournament and none expected that.The prophets of doom Khanye,Morgan Gould&other comedians r eating humble pie now saying we r going 4 pics&autographs against Dortmund.I also applaud Cardoso 4 coming out of the box&make his troops attack relentless with no fear Although against Fluminense we r going 2 get a bigger nut 2 crack.But the boys outdid themselves.