Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena believes Kaizer Chiefs keeper Brandon Petersen should have clinched the Man of the Match Award.
Despite committing two costly errors in the match against Sundowns, Petersen produced a number of brilliant saves for Chiefs to deny Sundowns.
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He stopped Peter Shalulile and Themba Zwane who nearly scored from promising spots but the award went to Sundowns’ new signing Thapelo Maseko.
The Masandawana manager, Mokwena led the reigning DStv Premiership champions to two wins of the new season as they claimed a 2-1 win over Chiefs on Wednesday afternoon.
In his post-match analysis, the Sundowns coach said they deserved the win over Chiefs because they are the best team thus far.
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Sundowns needed a late goal by substitute Neo Maema after Chiefs had cancelled Lucas Ribeiro’s first-half lead in the 84th minute through the speedy Ashley Du Preez.
In addition, the former Ajax Cape Town and Bidvest Wits keeper, Petersen turned from hero into villain.
He stopped Sundowns from demolishing Amakhosi but he fluffed Maema’s shot in the dying stages to hand the hosts the lead.
“I think the better team won, for sure by far,” he said on SuperSport TV.
“And if you don’t take your chances this is what happens, you keep the game alive. We could’ve killed the game a long time ago.
“We should score. My disappointment is that we don’t take the chances, how many chances do we need?
“I told them at half-time, historically Kaizer chiefs are a very lucky team, historically. And they don’t need too many chances.
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“If you keep them in a game like that, they’re going to come back and you saw it’s 1-1. In the end, it’s 2-1 and the winning goal comes in the dying minute and it feels like it was a very tight game.”
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Mokwena added that the Chiefs’ Cape Town-born gloveman was his preferred choice for the MOM accolade.
“I think Petersen was Man of the Match, in my opinion, because he made so many good saves and we had so many good chances,” he added.
“But ok, we take it. We’re happy with the three points and try to be better next time.”
Following the win over Molefi Ntseki’s Chiefs, the Tshwane giants moved to the top of the log with six points, while the Soweto bigshots are in 10th with just one point – both from two matches.
Meanwhile, the Brazilians will now turn their focus to the MTN8 semi-final clash against Moroka Swallows on Saturday afternoon.
