Four things we learned from Sundowns vs Chiefs clash

Mamelodi Sundowns had the last laugh after advancing to the semifinals of the MTN8 at the expense of their rivals Kaizer Chiefs, beating them 2-1 on penalties after they were locked at 2-2 after extra-time. 

ALSO READ: Mweene comes up trumps as Sundowns edge Chiefs on penalties

The MTN8 is always viewed as a pre-season tournament and comes with the curse tag, where the team that wins it usually does not do so well in the league, but Downs will be hoping they can go all the way and still dominate the league as they have been.

This game is viewed as Stuart Baxter’s first official match in charge since returning to the side, even though he did lead Chiefs to the Caf Champions League silver medal, but in fairness, Arthur Zwane steered that ship only for Baxter to jump in at the final hurdle. Also, we don’t count the ‘Beer Cup’, the Carling Black Label Cup.

Phakaaathi lists four things we learnt from the clash that took place at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday:

Going with the old guard

Well, one thing that is quite evident is that Baxter appears to lean towards the more experienced players as opposed to giving the youngsters at Chiefs a chance. The team started with the likes of Cole Alexander, Phathutshedzo Nange and Bernard Parker, trusting them to boss the middle of the park and instigate attacks for Amakhosi.

Njabulo Ngcobo, Happy Mashiane, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, Sibuiso Mabiliso and Sabelo Hadebe all started on the bench. One cannot help but wonder if the Amakhosi nation are going to see much of these exciting youngsters in the course of the season.

“CBD Rebirth”

While Leonardo Castro was not in the match-day squad and Khama Billiat was the only member of the famous “CBD” that started the game at Lucas Moripe, we saw an immediate rebirth of the “CBD” when Keagan Dolly came on off the bench.

Mamelodi Sundowns coaches must have been quite annoyed when Dolly teed up Billiat within his first touch of the game, just 30 seconds after he came, giving Chiefs supporters a glimpse of what is to come from him this season. That assist was crucial as it saw the Glamour Boys equalize for the second time to take the time into extra-time.

Shocking penalty shoot-out

One thing you cannot question is how horrible the penalty takers were from both sides. You hardly come across a penalty shoot-out that ends with a 2-1 scoreline. Yeah, sure, Kennedy Mweene made four saves but he encroached the line before the takers could hit their shot. At the same time, it does not take away the fact both sets of penalty takers were overall disappointing, despite the three takes that were converted. Maybe they need to spend more time practicing penalties?

Half-baked Sundowns still better than Chiefs

Masandawana are, without much doubt, the team with the best quality and they displayed that on Sunday. Sundowns looked like they were not playing at full gear but they still dominated most of the periods of the game. Even their head coach, Manqoba Mngqithi said his team sort of undermined the encounter and did not assert their foot as much as they should.

The guys who started are all regulars, except Mothobi Mvala and Haashim Domingo who were sporadic players last season, but still, you could tell that the team was in pre-season mode as they did not get to perfectly execute their slow build-up followed by the fast-paced surge and waves of attack – however, Chiefs still couldn’t beat them and had to chase the game from the 10^th minute.