Costa scores brace as awe-inspiring Sundowns just seem to get better

Lucas Ribeiro Costa scored a brace as Mamelodi Sundowns beat Polokwane City 2-0 at Polokwane's Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday night to stretch their winning run to six matches out of six in the 2023-24 DStv Premiership.

The victory, which could so easily have been by a much wider margin given how dominant Sundowns were, means the Brazilians have gone 30 matches without defeat in the league since they were beaten by SuperSport United early last season.

Early as it might be in this campaign, it is surely going to take a Herculean effort from any of the elite league’s teams to stop them from winning a staggering seventh Premiership title in succession.

Sundowns look stronger and much more polished with every match they play. And the addition of Brazilian Costa appears to have made Rulani Mokwena’s team all the more lethal in attack.

Signed from Belgian outfit Beveren at the beginning of the season, Costa snatched a brace to add to the two goals he has already scored in previous matches to suggest the burden of finding the opposition nets will now be reduced for Namibian goal-machine Peter Shalulile, who sat this game out due to injury.

Costa slotted the opener from the penalty spot in the 12th minute after Marcelo Allende was hacked down inside the City box. He added a second early after the halftime break (50th) as he smashed home from close range.

A clinical finisher, Costa is not just a box striker but fairly versatile and fetched and carried the ball well to even create scoring opportunities for his partners in the Brazilians’ attacking trio.

In the first half during which Sundowns could easily have killed the match off as a contest, he did well in the 23rd to find his way around City goalkeeper Lindokuhle Mathebula and delivered a square ball for Neo Maema, who was too slow to react and saw a shot blocked.

The Brazilians were at their usual best as they controlled the first half with consummate ease and always looked threatening whenever they made a foray into the final third of the field. That they went ahead as early as they did was not surprising and it was more that they had just the one goal to show for their efforts in the first half that belied their performance.

They were again dominant after the break and when Costa scored the second it was after an easy chance had been missed uncharacteristically by captain Themba Zwane.

The depth of quality that Sundowns have was evidenced when Mokwena made no less than four changes in the second half without diminishing the strength of the team.