Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised his skipper Themba Zwane after leading the club to their first DStv Premiership win over Cape Town City on Friday night.
The reigning league champions bagged their maiden victory at the DHL Cape Town Stadium and the seasoned manager says the intensity was the deciding factor.
Sundowns scored through Aubrey Modiba’s stunning free-kick and Zwane doubled their tally ensuring the Tshwane giants started their title defence campaign with a 2-0 win.
Speaking after the match, the former Golden Arrows manager also praised coach Eric Tinkler’s Citizens for their gallant fight but they were denied by debutant, Ronwen Williams who started between the goal posts.
“We always know it’s gonna be a tight game, we knew it can be broken down with a set-piece, and fortunately Aubrey scored the set-piece,” Mngqithi told SuoerSport TV.
“Then the game opened up a little bit more and we knew on transition they might come and want to impose on us and who knew who would score from a transition but Themba Zwane, who you would not think because of the speed.
“But he took his goal very well. We knew that after they conceded they would be more adventurous and come at us and we wanted to use the space behind, which I don’t think we used enough. I think we could have created more opportunities from that.”
The current DStv Coach of the Year added that statistics can reveal their dominance but says they still need to be clinical upfront.
How do you rate Ronwen Williams' debut for Mamelodi Sundowns? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/b3IzUvA4d9
— iDiski Times (@iDiskiTimes) August 6, 2022
“I think the game was won on intensity, if you check our high presses and our counter-presses I think first-half we had nine successful high presses,” added Mngqithi.
“Probably lacking on the shots at goal, I think we only had one from those very successful high presses but our counter-presses very good.
“The game was very close, possession we wanted to dominate the field and to dominate the ball, that’s what we did. Creating chances, we created a lot of scoring opportunities but we were not clinical enough.
“And I do think after we scored the second goal we lost control of the game, the game too transitional and we were never really stable on the ball.”
Main image: Mamelodi Sundowns/Twitter
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