Despite the difficulties they face in central defence due to their excessive number of injured players, including Grant Kekana and Rivaldo Coetzee who had long-term injuries and most recently Mosa Lebusa who has joined the list, Mamelodi Sundowns have been able to grind out victories and keep clean sheets.
Peter Shalulile scored at the very end of the second half to give the Brazilians a hard-fought victory against Chippa United in a recent midweek match.
The squad also managed to preserve a clean sheet. Mothobi Mvala proved all sceptics wrong when he was paired up with Rushine De Reuck as centre halves during Bafana Ba Style’s match against the Chili Boys.
The 28-year-old not only took up a new role but also played the entire game and hailed evaluations from Coach Manqoba, who gave a glowing review of the players, saying:
“Mothobi performed really well in his debut game as a central defender tonight.
I really believe that he outperformed several supposedly elite centre backs, and I think he will continue.
Since some of the errors he makes may need a lot of scanning, if I had to give you my honest assessment, I would say that he will be a better centre back than most centre backs in the nation.
However, if the game is in front of him, I believe he is one of the greatest passers on the ball.
Despite the Brazilians having a particularly successful summer, attempts were made to add new players to the legendary roster.
Longtime midfielder Bongani Zungu, who joined Vitoria de Guimaraes in July 2016 after leaving the club, is one of the new additions.
Since the maestro’s introduction at Loftus Versfeld Stadium about a month ago, Downs fans and followers have been wondering when the player would be seen in action. Coach Manqoba answered the anxiety by addressing Zungu’s preparedness to participate in games, saying:
As for Zungu, according to our planning, we anticipate that he might be available for that first Champions League match, which is in accordance with the preparations we are making given that he did not have a proper preseason with us.
However, I must be honest and say that I think the guys who are currently there are doing a good job. Andile Jali AJ, Teboho Mokoena, and Neo Maema, in my opinion, are all performing at their best.
Since the guys we have given an opportunity to [play] have performed well, we have a little more time to prepare him without rushing because we don’t want him to falter and leave us with a problem.
However, we do think he will be useful when the season truly calls for it and we need to have our depth.
Cassius Mailula, one of the most gifted young midfielders in the DStv Diski Challenge, earned his first-team debut in Masandawana’s 1-0 victory against Chippa on Wednesday night in Port Elizabeth.
This is just the latest season-opening revelation from the Tshwane giants. Coach Manqoba praised the newcomer who has joined their family, the 20-year-old Wizard, who recently participated in Masandawana’s preseason training.
The Wizard is a well-known Sundowns academy alumnus.
“If you look at what we’re trying to achieve, we’re trying to get the age of the club down and lower, and that’s why even if you look at the signings that we’re bringing in, we’re trying to get younger and younger [players] because at one time we had an old team and that was frightening.
It caused us to constantly wonder what would happen if we had a breakdown.
The good news about the young individuals we’ve elevated is that Mailula and Ntando [Nkosi] weren’t simply given the opportunity because we wanted to give them a chance, but rather because they had performed incredibly well. I still think they will provide much more than what people have seen from them.
To be quite honest, we even debated starting Mailula in this game because of how well he performed against Cape Town All Stars in a preseason friendly.
We reasoned that if we could give him the ball early in the season, it may help the team.
These guys need to be included into the squad because they will be crucial and because, despite their youth, they provide a little bit of energy to our training sessions.
On September 10, Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows square off at TUKS Stadium in the DStv Premiership. Live action will begin at 00:00 on SuperSport TV.