Quickfire Kekana blows Bucs away
BRAZILIANS: BOUNCE BACK IN EMPHATIC FASHION
Laffor rubs salt in the wounds after Kekana’s early double strike.
Mamelodi Sundowns continued their dominance over Orlando Pirates with a 3-1 victory in an electrifying atmosphere at the Orlando Stadium last night.
The Pretoria outfit bounced back to winning ways after three successive defeats before this tie.
Pitso Mosimane’s charges have now accumulated 12 points in seven games as they play catch up with their league fi xtures following their commitments in the Caf Champions league before being eliminated.
For Bucs, meanwhile, the loss was their second of the season having collected 14 points in 10 league games.
Sundowns started the tie brightly, with skipper Hlompho Kekana opening the scoring with a very bizarre goal – when an attempted clearance ricocheted off the boot of Kekana, and found the back of the net – inside the first two minutes of the match.
Kekana registered his second goal of the match in the 13th minute with a jaw-dropping long range shot similar to the one he scored for Bafana Bafana against Cameroon in last year’s Afcon qualifier match.
With Pirates 2-0 down, they were hit by a major blow when left back Innocent Maela was unable to finish the fi rst half after suffering an injury and was replaced by Musa Nyatama. It was their second substitution after Thamsanqa Gabuza came on for Thabiso Kutumela earlier.
Nyatama’s introduction into the game gave Pirates a muchneeded boost in midfield as Bucs managed to launch more attacks.
Thembinkosi Lorch had a chance to pull one back for Bucs, but the winger’s shot went wide.
It took a spectacular set-piece by Marc van Heerden to get Bucs back into the game, beating Dennis Onyango on the right side of the poles in the 37th minute to make it 2-1.
Bucs looked more rejuvenated after the goal playing with a high tempo and pretty much dominated much of the second half after their sloppy start.
Pirates created plenty of opportunities, with most of them falling for Thabo Qalinge, who couldn’t place his shots on target, leaving substitute Anthony Laffor to get the visitors third goal of the match with a cracking shot just outside the box to walk away with maximum points on the night.