Tau on target against Stars
Sundowns star nets a brace to give his team a timely boost in Premiership
Free State Stars Vilakazi 90+3 Mamelodi Sundowns Tau 44, 60
T(0) 1 (1) 2 HE LITTLE magician, Percy Tau, weaved his magic wand last night at Goble Park, hypnotising Free State Stars to give Mamelodi Sundowns a morale-boosting victory ahead of their CAF Champions League title defence.
The 23-year-old forward came from the bench and led the Brazilians to a comfortable win over a team that’s become their daily bread, stretching their winning streak over Stars to 11.
Pitso Mosimane went into this match with one eye on the crucial clash with Tunisia’s WAC Casablanca on Sunday at Lucas Moripe Stadium, and didn’t start with any of the players who were on recent international duty, with Tau and Denis Onyango on the bench while Hlompho Kekana and Themba Zwane were in the stands. Tebogo Langerman and Kennedy Mweene didn’t even travel with the team.
That stance showed the club’s depth even though their defence, led by Ghanaian goalkeeper Razak Brimah, was shaky at first. But once they clicked, Downs easily closed down Ea Lla Koto. Stars’ defence looked solid, a sign that coach Luc Eymael is slowly instilling his style in the team.
The Belgian coach did the same thing when he took over at Polokwane City, where he strengthened their porous defence to a unit that’s hard to penetrate and then worked on their attack to lay the foundation that saw Rise and Shine finish in the top eight for the first time in the club’s history.
Stars defence, solid as they were, couldn’t contain Tau though. The Bafana Bafana international came on just before the half-hour mark to replace an injured Anthony Laffor. Tau whizzed between a sea of red defenders who could only stop him illegally. Tau dusted himself and scored a stunning free-kick to put the African champions ahead. As if to prove that wasn’t a fluke, he completed a brace with an even better goal – a thunderbolt he unleashed outside the box after pick-pocketing the ball.
Tau brought more attacking impetus to Sundowns after his introduction. Leonardo Castro on the other hand continued to look like a shadow of the deadly Colombian forward who rattled the net with ease in the Brazilians’ march to win the Premiership two seasons ago. But the abundance of skilful players Sundowns have in their roaster makes up for that.
In the absence of an imposing point of reference upfront, Sundowns hurt their opponents by their skilful players who take on teams head-on. That approach makes Tau able to shine at Sundowns. The lad from Witbank is brave, taking on defenders with confidence, and he doesn’t drop his head when he misses as he knows that he will put the ball in the back of the net eventually.
The only thing missing in his arsenal is shortening the time between his attempts to score. If he does that, he will be a world class player who would be easily snapped up by clubs in Europe.
Nhlanhla Vilakazi gave Stars a consolation goal in the last minute of the match.
The focus for Sundowns now shifts to Casablanca who they host on Sunday before travelling to Tunisia a week later looking to book a place in