Fatigue responsible for Sundowns defeat

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane pointed at tired legs as the reason for his side’s 1-0 Absa Premiership defeat at title rivals Cape Town City on Friday night.

The Brazilians would still top the table if they were to win their games in hand on the rest – they currently trail City by six points, but have played five games less than the surprise package from the Mother City.

“We lost to a good team, we accept it, we have to take the loss, why not,” said Mosimane.

“They now put themselves in a comfortable position to take the title, but, losing this game, does it mean we have lost the title? I don’t know. They’ve won the match, are they winning the title? It is for you to interpret and see how it goes. Our title chances now, it is very difficult, but we have got a long way to go. You know how football is. We played against a fresh team, who were quicker, they were more interested. You know why. They have rested for seven days. We played on Tuesday, on Wednesday and on Friday.”

Although Eric Tinkler’s side completed the league double over Masandawana, the former Bafana Bafana midfielder says his side need to make sure they collect maximum points against sides that are not title contenders, if they are to count themselves as favourites.

“We have never lost against the top teams on the table other than when we played Bidvest Wits in the MTN8. We let ourselves down when we played against the socalled smaller teams, the likes of Baroka FC, when we lost at home, the likes of Free State Stars away. I have said it before that you win leagues by beating those teams, not by beating Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs or SuperSport United,” he said.