Mamelodi Sundowns emerged from the stormy Setsoto Stadium cauldron with a 1-0 first-round, first-leg CAF Champions League win against Lesotho champions Likhopo over the weekend — and an assortment of good and bad news before Wednesday’s crucial Premier Soccer League game against Kaizer Chiefs.
The happy tidings from a game that was interrupted for 13 minutes due to crowd disruptions were that replacements Andre Arendse (goal) and Benson Mhlongo (central defence) were more-than-adequate replacements for the injured Rafael Dudamel and Neil Winstanley in the line-up beaten 1-0 by Chiefs at the FNB Stadium last week.
The bad news is that attacking right-back Vuyo Mere suffered an injury, and Mhlongo also picked up an injury during his impressive performance.
”I’m hoping both these important defenders will report fit for the Chiefs game,” said joint Sundowns coach Neil Tovey, ”but it’s going to be a last-minute decision and the line-up will only be finalised on the day of the game.”
A player who Tovey will definitely be without is diminutive Venezuelan international striker Jose Torrealba, who is under suspension as a result of referee Jerome Damon’s inexcusable indiscretion in Wednesday’s game against Chiefs.
Torrealba was hacked down in the penalty area, but instead of awarding the spot kick that TV replays indicate would have been the right decision, Damon — earmarked as a World Cup referee — yellow-carded the Sundowns striker for simulating an infringement, thereby causing him to miss Wednesday’s return game against Chiefs.
Tovey indicated the likely replacement for Torrealba would be striker Sandile Ndlovu, scorer of the solitary goal in Lesotho on Sunday that gave Sundowns a 1-0 lead and a valuable away goal going into the second leg against Likhopo.
”But everything at this moment is geared for the Chiefs game,” said Tovey, ”which effectively is worth six points in the league championship race.”
The Sundowns coach said the crowd fracas in Lesotho was the result of dissatisfaction with the Namibian referee.
”But apart from this, we were treated royally in Maseru,” added Tovey, ”although the hospitality ended abruptly when we took the field and a resolute Likhopo team provided us with quite a battle.” — Sapa