Polokwane City stun Sundowns at Loftus with Ramagalela grabbing a brace
If was not for the occasional sparks that were provided by Polokwane City’s two goal hero Rodney Ramagalela that helped his team side to a deserved 2-1 win over Mamelodi Sundowns, this match could have disintegrated into a complete bore.
For large parts of this chilly Tuesday night at Loftus, both sets of players failed to apply the basics and their work was largely riddled with schoolboy errors much to the disproval of the small crowd that braved the cold.
This match is the second of the season for both teams and maybe they are still shaking off-season cobwebs but they have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks as the campaign will be gaining momentum.
To illustrate some of the costly mistakes that proved to be fatal for Sundowns, when Rodney Ramagalela opened the scoring after 35 minutes he was set-up by midfielder Oupa Manyisa who completely forgot the basics of trapping the ball.
Maluleke passed the ball to Ramagalela who beat Sundowns defender Bangaly Soumahoro, who was suspect for most of the game, inside the box but only to misplace his pass to Manyisa who had the option of clearing the danger.
Manyisa, who was not expecting to be called into action inside the box, failed to control the ball and only managed to pass it back to the Ramagalela who pounced home from close range to beat advancing Sundowns goalkeeper Denis Onyango.
Sundowns did not want to go to the break trailing and two minutes from half time midfielder Percy Tau produced an acrobatic save from George Chigova with George Lebese failing to find the target from the rebound.
Three minutes from restart, City attacker Vusimusi Mngomezulu beat the Sundowns offside trap but his shot was saved by Onyango as City went in search of the insurance goal to make it difficult for their hosts to come back in the game.
The Brazilians came back in the game in the 53rd minute when referee Chris Harrison awarded them a controversial penalty after the ball hit the hand of City defender Thapelo Tshilo in the penalty box.
Lebese showed nerves of steel to stand up and to calmly beat Chigova from the spot to draw the Brazilians level and his first for the club since he joined them from Kaizer Chiefs a few weeks ago.
After Lebese’s goal, it appeared as if the match was headed for the share of the spoils but Ramagalela, who is a former Sundowns player, had other ideas as he turned Motjeka Madisha before unleashing a thunderous shot from just outside the box in the 68th minute.
This win for City rookie coach Bernard Molekwa, did not only hand Sundowns their first defeat of the season after two round of matches but it was their first away win against the Brazilians after five years of trying.
- TimesLIVE