Sundowns Vs Chiefs: How Komphela Outsmarted Mosimane

Kaizer Chiefs claimed a 2-1 win over Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday, in a dramatic Absa Premiership encounter and Soccer Laduma takes a look at how Steve Komphela managed to tactically outsmart Pitso Mosimane.

The two sides went head-to-head at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday, October, 17, in a thrilling league encounter, where Chiefs’ Komphela opted to frustrate the Sundowns attack by fielding six of his players in defensive positions on the day.

Joseph Molangoane was seen sitting back quite deeply into his own half, doubling up in front of Siyabonga Ngezana, adding cover in the right back position, while Willard Katsande remained just in front of Daniel Cardoso and Erick Mathoho in their centre back positions, with Philani Zulu securing the left flank.

With Chiefs sitting back for most of the encounter, it forced a funnel for the Sundowns players to attack down the middle, which allowed Ngezana, Mathoho, Cardoso and Katsande to deal with the Masandawana attack in a confined area.  

Percy Tau, Thapelo Morena, Khama Billiat and Oupa Manyisa managed just one shot each throughout the encounter, with none of them being on target on the day.

However, Themba Zwane, who was arguably the standout player for the Brazilians, managed to put Itumeleng Khune under a little pressure, when two of his shots were on goal, although it was just a usual day in the office for the Amakhosi goalkeeper.

The Soweto giants put two goals past Sundowns’ Denis Onyango, with Siyabonga Ngezana and Bernard Parker getting on the scoresheet for the Glamour Boys.

However, the Brazilians managed to pull one back with a penalty kick taken by Zwane to make the score 2-1 at the full-time whistle.