Mamelodi Sundowns coach Ian Gorowa has hailed his players for their “great character”following Sunday’s victory over Kaizer Chiefs which kept their League title hopes alive.
Following the 2-0 victory against the Amakhosi, Sundowns still trail leaders Ajax Cape Town by five points, but have a game in hand — against AmaZulu Tuesday.
Gorowa now hopes his players can maintain their level of performance going into their last three games of the season.
“We fought hard; we showed good character and I am very happy with the three points. Today the players showed that they wanted it more, hence the result,” he says. “We have to play three games in the space of a week, but we are well prepared and will take it one game at a time.”
Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs coach Vladimir Vermezovic has heaped praise on Sundowns.
“Credit must go to Sundowns for their performance. They have excellent players with experience. We made two or three mistakes and were punished. We tried to push hard but it was not enough.”
He has explained the reason why he benched both Knowledge Musona and Siphiwe Tshabalala against Sundowns.
Vermezovic surprised the Amakhosi faithful when he started the 2-0 defeat at Loftus Stadium without both Musona and Tshabalala and instead played Sthembiso Ngcobo as a lone striker and Mthokozisi Yende behind him.
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The Serbian also started with Mandla Masango and Josta Dladla on the wings and both failed to penetrate the makeshift Brazilians defence, which had Siyabonga Ngubane playing in the unfamiliar position at right-back.
“Tshabalala was injured when we played SuperSport United and has not been training with the club for the past 20 days. Musona also did not train last week because of illness. Both players only started training on Friday,” Vermezovic said.
Chiefs also missed defender Dominic Isaacs due to injury and Under-20 star Lucky Baloyi was called up to partner Thomas Sweswe in defence. —Kickoff
