While not displaying the sublime form that accounted for the other Soweto glamour club, Kaizer Chiefs, 10 days ago, defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns moved to the top of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) log with a 2-1 win over Orlando Pirates at a vibrant Loftus on Wednesday night. It will take someone with considerable courage to bet on them not ending there at the close of the season.
The Brazilians now head Ajax by a point, but have three games in hand over the Cape Town club and a whole host of other championship challengers — the battle for the PSL title is fast becoming a one-horse race.
Victory was ultimately achieved only through an ice-cool penalty goal from Surprise Moriri in the 59th minute.
Referee Jerome Damon not only awarded the Brazilians the spot-kick, but also yellow-carded Lucky Legwathi in the process after Zimbabwean international Peter Ndlovu had enacted ”a fresh-air kick” in front of an open goal and missed the ball entirely.
Pirates’ officials were adamant that Ndlovu, in his anxiety, had stumbled over his own feet and even a succession of TV replays afterwards was not conclusive over the legitimacy of the penalty.
The consensus, however, was that Legwathi had ”tapped” Ndlovu’s ankle from behind and Damon had come up with the right decision.
Be that as it may, Sundowns were clearly the better team on the night and deserved their success after conceding a catastrophic ”own goal” in the 14th minute when captain Michael Manzini deflected the ball into the net.
Pirates seemed to squander a looming opportunity of gaining the initiative when their defence was caught napping in the 22nd minute and allowed Lerato Chabangu to score a simple headed equaliser at the near post following a corner.
The Brazilians were back in the driver’s seat by the time Moriri gave them the lead and Pirates’ woes continued in the 72nd minute when combustible Nigerian international Onyekachi Okonkwo was shown a red card after a second bookable offence.
Okonkwo had displayed a provocative, dangerous element almost from the kick-off and might easily have received his marching orders in the first half. But despite his obvious ire as he left the pitch, he rightly had few complaints over Damon’s decision.
After staging a mini-revival with an unbeaten run of six games, new Pirates coach Bibey Mutombo declared that a new spirit of aggression had turned their play around.
Okonkwo, however, seemed to take aggression to its dubious limits and accept it as licence to hack players at will.
Despite Pirates looking a beaten side with 10 men, they were presented with a golden opportunity of equalising in the 85th minute, but a pin-point cross from Benedict Vilakazi was headed wide of the post by substitute Benett Chenene.
And even without goal-scoring kingpin Jose Torrealba, who is serving a two-game suspension, it was Sundowns who generally looked likelier to add to the score. — Sapa