Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane says he was impressed with the way Cape Town City stopped his side from playing their game in the 1-1 draw on Tuesday evening.
The Absa Premiership champions opened the scoring through a Hlompho Kekana thunderbolt in the seventh minute before Edmilson Dove netted a screamer of his own to level the scores in the 25th minute.
Speaking after the game, Mosimane admitted that he was forced to tweak his game plan as City packed the midfield to stop Downs from playing their normal game.
‘You’ve got to understand, they are coming from games they have not been winning,’ the Masandawana coach told SuperSport TV after the game.
‘I was very impressed with them because they put in a good shift. They didn’t care about playing nice. They worked very hard to really stop us from playing our own game.
‘We didn’t play as good as we wanted. But I changed in the second half and we were better. Because Themba Zwane and Vila at the beginning were nearly in the same space. So then I went back to two strikers and it looked a little better.
‘They packed the midfield. They put Mobara, Mokeke and Makola in the midfield to make sure we don’t play. Kermit is a good player. He also gave us a little bit of a hard time. He could handle playing alone, as a lone striker. That shows a little bit of intelligence,’ he added.
Mosimane also hit out at Thamsanqa Mkhize’s tackle that cut Keletso Makgalwa’s cameo short.
‘But I think Lyle could have done it in the first minute. Instead of placing it, he should have smacked it. He must just hit it hard and it would have gone through. Little bit disappointed with Keletso. I hope he didn’t rupture his achilles tendon.
‘I just believe somewhere and somehow the laws of the game should change. He was going to score and Mkhize did a good foul to stop him from kicking. But when you go to his achilles tendon, for me if you do that, it should not be a yellow card. Even if you give him a yellow now, he must wait for Keletso to come back. If Keletso is out of for three weeks, he must also come back in three weeks,’ he concluded.