Mamelodi Sundowns Senior Coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised new signings Lucas Ribeiro, Junior Mendieta and Thapelo Maseko, who all made their in-official debut in the 2-2 draw with KAA Gent on Friday.
Downs have jetted out to Europe for the next phase of their pre-season and set up friendlies against Go Ahead Eagles on 23 July, Sparta Rotterdam on 25 July and NAC on 28 July.
They started their European camp with a 2-2 draw against Belgian side KAA Gent, who will be playing in the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round this season.
Downs started the game on fire and were 2-0 up thanks to goals by Ribeiro and Rivaldo Coetzee, but the home side equalised via a brace by Nigerian striker Gift Orban.
After the match, Mngqithi was full of praise for new signings Ribeiro, who started the match, Mendieta and Maseko, with the latter duo coming on in the second half.
“I am very impressed with Lucas, a technically unbelievable player who is going to score a lot of goals for us. He still has to work a lot in his intensity, in his defensive plays, pressing and all that, but offensively he’s adding a lot of value in what we have already,” he told Downs’ website.
“Then you’ve got Junior Mendieta, the hardest running offensive player who is going to complement Peter a lot with his pressing and he is going to complement even our setpieces because really he is also very strong.
“He came into this game in the second half and gave a very good account of himself, he created some very interesting moments and unfortunate to hit the uprights with a header within 1 meter away from goals, but it was really encouraging to see how he ran and how he really, really pushed himself in this game.
“The last one is [Thapelo] Maseko who came in the second half as well and showed a lot of spark, very good runs off the ball and unfortunate not to get clear-cut opportunities. There was one chance that I thought he should have cracked it but decided to pass Peter.
“In this match there were about 4 if not 5 goals, unfortunately out of all of them only two were legitimate.”
Mngqithi, though, was happy with the his side’s defending after both goals of the home side came following mistakes at the back.
“Truth be told, we deserve to have won this match. I think the boys played very well,” he added.
“We controlled the game, we were the ones dominating possession, dominating the number of chances created, dominating the number of box entries and that for us was very positive.
“The unfortunate thing that is really a big assignment for us is to start closing the door at the back because we’ve had these situations even last season and that is unlike Sundowns.
“We are normally very clinical in that space and the sad part is that the goals we are conceding are merely our mistakes, it is not like the opposition outplays us and creates scoring opportunities but it’s looking very positive I must say.”
