Mamelodi Sundowns Co-Head Coach Manqoba Mngqithi says they should have wrapped the game up earlier, and could easily have avoided the 2-1 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday.
It was the DStv Premiership log-leaders first defeat in the league this season, who after leading for most of the game, conceded two goals in two minutes.
Mngqithi feels that it should never have come down to that, as he felt his team should’ve been further in the lead by that point.
And he was disappointed at how they conceded the equaliser, not by the deflection that caused the own goal, but rather by the play in the build-up to it.
“I think it’s one of those games where I think we could have wrapped the game earlier,” Mngqithi said in the post match presser.
“But we resorted to a lot of ball possession when it was unnecessary. When you’ve got moments to penetrate and at times, we didn’t take the chances that we created, at times in front of the box, we were not as clinical and we’re not as incisive.
“And even at halftime we made them aware that when it’s one nil, it is on the edge, because at a certain point we might lose control of the game and unfortunately, we lost control in a situation, again that I thought, when Riva made that wrong pass to Lyle, maybe Lyle could have blocked, you would not have had that counter attack. But for him to allow the opponent to go beyond him like that, then it created momentum.”
“And they started with a ripple effect, it created moments for them to from Nurkovic, to even be able to put that shot and unfortunate that it was a deflection but like I said, when people say you are lucky, it’s because it’s when opportunity meets hard work. They were at the right place at the right time, and that’s why we were punished from there.”
“And after that we were very open on the counter attack from Zuma. I still have to check what happened there because there was a very big hole on the right hand side. And I was focusing more on what was likely to happen beyond that line. And when we lost possession and that space was created. And I know that boy is always very dangerous, he may not be playing a lot but is one of the most dangerous players in the PSL, when he has an opportunity he can always punish you.”
“And that’s the summary of the game for me because I think what makes me feel bad to say that this is not the game that I think should have made us to lose our unbeaten run. Yes, we’re not banking on that. But there are many games that we have played before, which opponents have put us under tremendous pressure. And we managed to come up with a draw. But for this one, for me, I think this was a game that we could have easily wrapped earlier.”
“And we let it loose and Khune kept on telling them that ‘we are still in the game guys, we are still in the game.’ And I agreed with him because I could see with this thing, if it continues like this, we had a very big chance second half and we did not take it, to make it two nil and I said hey, this thing, when it’s on the edge like this is always gonna be a problem. And unfortunately, that is what happened.”
