Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says they were playing for the late Motjeka Madisha during their victory over Chippa United this past Sunday.
Sundowns and Chippa showed their respects by holding a two-minute moment of silence for Madisha, who wore the No 2 jersey.
The Brazilians extended their unbeaten run in the DStv Premiership to 15 games following their 2-0 victory over the Chilli Boys at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
The win had Sundowns extend their lead at the top of the league table to five points with 33 points from 15 matches played so far this season.
‘The game panned out the way we thought, we knew that they would be planting five in the heart of midfield but we had planned for that, we wanted a direct confrontation with our full backs and their wing backs,’ Mngqithi told SuperSport TV after the game.
‘Both of them did very well, Lebo [Maboe] was exceptional, Lyle [Lakay] was exceptional in dealing with those one-vs-ones but we didn't score the goals we should have scored. I think today we could have easily scored six or more goals.
‘But there are times in football you must accept that maybe Madisha wanted us to only score two [with regard to his jersey number] because we were playing for him today. So, I think it's fair to give him the two goals that he might have wanted. Because today I honestly believe we deserved to score more than four, five goals, but that's football for you,’ he said.
The Sundowns mentor also credited the club’s analysts for the tactical approach to their training and the match.
‘It's very important to be very adaptable in our approach and understand what the opponents are doing. That is why, maybe, one should commend our analysts – they work very hard to present the right information,’ he added.
‘Because that also guides the way we train the team based on those micro-cycles, what does the opposition bring? We look at them offensively and defensively and structure our training sessions to try and deal with the areas we feel are the opportunities for us to try to exploit their weaknesses.
‘Unfortunately, at times we lose the plot. If you look at the game we played against Swallows, first half we had adapted to what we knew they are going to present, we dominated the first half, we could have easily scored a lot of goals in that space.
‘But second half, for whatever reason, we decided to sit back, open and bring them into the game. That outcome is probably due to anxiety, the fact that we had not won a match in two games that we had played before.
‘So, one must accept that sometimes football will give you different answers but tactical organisation of the team is impressive. But, we're not ruthless enough, that's one area that we're always shouting and fighting for.
‘We're not scoring as many goals as we should and when you come out of this match and have scored two goals, everybody gets excited that you've scored two goals but, to be honest, when you get chances like this, this is one game that should give you six, eight goals and from there you've got a very healthy goal difference,’ he concluded.
