Sundowns kept their hopes of qualifying for the top eight alive when they held on to defeat leaders Santos 2-1 in a Castle Premiership match at the Odi Stadium on Sunday. Downs led 2-0 at halftime.
Sundowns Siaka Tiene turned from hero to villain as the match progressed. The Côte d’Ivoire star opened the scoring in the 10th minute but blotted his copybook in the 77th minute when he was sent off by referee Ace Ncobo for a second bookable offence.
Sundowns ran Santos ragged in the entertaining first half. Had striker Simba Marumo showed more composure when he had only goalkeeper Brendon Wardle to beat on two occasions, Downs could have doubled their lead at halftime.
Santos’ only real chance came from Fees Moloi in the 16th minute but good goalkeeping form Andre Arendse forced the Santos striker to shoot wide. On 20 minutes Tiene had a goal bound shot deflected by Sabastien Bax.
Rotson Kilambe made it 2-0 in the 43rd minute when Wardle was forced to come to the edge of his penalty area to try and clear a Clement Mazibuko cross.
Santos came storming back into the match in the 57th minute when the giant, Bax, outjumped the Downs defence to head home Kamaal Sait’s free kick to make it 2-1.
Substitute Jonathan Solomons gave Downs a scare when his header from a Sait cross was just wide of the goal in the 64th minute.
Santos striker Fees Moloi wasted two further chances to equalise. The first in the 69th minute was a sitter and the second in the 77th minute saw the out of touch Moloi blast over the crossbar when in a good position to score.
Downs suffered a setback when Tiene was given his marching orders for a terrible lunging challenge on Musa Otieno. Downs held on to collect three valuable points and all but wreck Santos’ hopes of winning the league. – Sapa