WHEN they gather at Chloorkop this morning to inspect the wreckage from their CAF Champions League trip to Morocco, Mamelodi Sundowns will discover that the two players who have generally been their heroes were culpable for their maiden defeat in the continent’s premier club knockout competition’s group phase.
The South African champions were beaten 1-0 by Raja Casablanca in an ill-tempered match that saw them losing two players - Bathusi Aubaas and Khuliso Mudau – to sending offs with handbags being thrown about late in the tie.
Benaisa Benamar scored the match’s only goal just before half time as the Bafana Ba Style’s attempt at an offside trap got undone by a player who probably should not have been in the box. Lucas Ribeiro Costa is an attacker of note and scorer of many goals for Sundowns and while modern football dictates that players be adept at playing just about everywhere on the pitch, the Brazilian is never really going to be useful in the defence of a corner kick.
Yet, inexplicably, Ribeiro was in his own box for this set-piece and when they managed to half clear Sundowns swiftly moved up as defences are wont to in such situations. He was slow though and when the ball got back into the box he played the Raja players on – making it easy for Benamar to score unhindered.
Yet that corner should never have been. But Sundowns star goalkeeper Ronwen Williams is renowned for pulling off some spectacular saves and he produced a few of those at the Stade Larbi Zaouli on Saturday night.
But there was no need for him to make that full-on dive to his right for a shot that was clearly going off target.
He did and in failing to hold on to it, the South African skipper conceded a corner kick when allowing the ball over would have seen them eat up a few seconds to take the match into half time goalless.
Raja duly punished a Sundowns team that was already on the back foot after Bathusi Aubaas was sent off for an over the top tackle.
While he obviously did not specifically zone in on the goal and what led to it, coach Miguel Cardoso was frank about his team’s performance afterwards:
“It was obviously a difficult match, I think that (in the) first half - especially - we had to cope with a lot of pressure that reduces the spaces to play.
“We were not able to find spaces that were available mostly on the back of their defence; they put their defensive line very high, so we struggled a little bit to find the spaces.”
He admitted though that allowing Raja to score at such a critical time in the match was their downfall.
“What really changed the game is the way we suffered a goal in the last minute of the first half because always mentally, emotionally it is difficult to deal with a goal in the last minute when we need to re-organise the team,” he said.
“We had just lost one player (Aubaas) so we needed to arrive at half time to make all the arrangements and tactically position the team in the best way.
“It was clear that during the second half we managed to control the game, we just gave some opportunities in counter attacks for Raja, and unfortunately we were not able to score.
“We managed tactically different approaches, after the red card we balanced the team in order to try to do our best to win and we had two/three moments - we didn’t take advantage of them and unfortunately the result is what it is.”
The defeat sees Sundowns still in second place but now three points behind leaders AS FAR Rabat and just a single ahead of Raja with two matches to go in the group phase.
It leaves Cardoso having to work hard to ensure his team get maximum points away to Maniema this weekend before they welcome AS FAR in the final match the week thereafter.
“Now it’s important to focus on the next one, look forward. We have an important match obviously now when we play away with Maniema so, let’s recover our players because we lost three players (Aubaas and Khuliso Mudau who were sent off as well as Ribeiro who has accumulated bookings) for the next match,” said Cardoso.
“So, let’s also try to see who is ready to give the answer we need for sure we will do and see the next tactical approach to win the next match and make qualification closer.”
The defeat at Raja is not a train smash for Sundowns who still have their destiny in their own hands and victory at Maniema is a must and both Williams and Ribeiro will be hard pressed to deliver like they usually do and not cost the team like they did in Casablanca at the weekend.