Mamelodi Sundowns came back from a goal down as they drew 1-1 with SuperSport United in an Absa Premiership match played at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville near Pretoria on Saturday.
SuperSport, who have battled to find any form of positive consistency since making it to the silver medal in the CAF Confederation Cup final late last year, opened the scoring in the 11th minute, when midfielder Richard Boateng produced the perfect chip to allow Thabo Mnyamane to beat the Sundowns’ offside trap and score past Denis Onyango.
There are few matches involving Sundowns where Percy Tau doesn’t get on the score-sheet or contribute towards a goal. This time, Sundowns fans had to wait until the 78th minute for the Bafana Bafana man to finish off a move after a free-kick was played in.
Sundowns nearly threw all the points away in the closing stages when Onyango was left to pull off a world class save from a close-range effort from SuperSport defender Clayton Daniels.
The men in yellow and blue’s biggest concern will be the injury to midfield kingpin Khama Billiat who limped off the field in the 50th minute. His replacement, Sibusiso Vilakazi fitted well into the Sundowns playing pattern and had a chance or two to find the back of the SuperSport net himself, but a draw was the way that it ended.
While Tau saved the day for his club, he will know that he could well have brought all three points home to the former CAF African Champions League winners if he had taken all the chances that he is known to usually finish off.
Sundowns, who have had a tough week and who came in for some criticism after surrendering their 1-0 lead to draw one-all with Free State Stars in Bethlehem a few days back, will know all too well that a point won is two points lost.
The Brazilians, as Sundowns are known, moved to 40 points from 22 games, and with only 24 points still available before the end of the league season, will know that 60 points is the bare minimum target if they are to have a chance of league success.
They will travel to Durban to face Amazulu in their next league encounter on March 2.
SuperSport meanwhile, with only one win and two draws in their past seven league games, are hovering in the last third of the league table with 26 points from 22 games.
They will get their best chance to move away from the wrong third of the football table when they take on second-from-bottom Ajax Cape Town in the Mother City
