After knocking on the door throughout the opening ninety minutes of their matchup against Chippa United, a corner kick at the beginning of stoppage time finally unlocked the Chilli Boys defense for Mamelodi Sundowns and star striker Peter Shalulile’s winning strike. The Namibian smashed home his fifth goal of the season from four yards out after Mothobi Mvala met an Aubrey Modiba corner kick at the near post with a flick on header. Sundowns join Richards Bay and Royal AM at the top of the DStv Premiership table with thirteen points each.
Chippa United hardly had the ball and expressed little to no intent of attempting to score, putting all their players behind the ball to go for a point. For long stretches the strategy from manager Daine Klate worked due to the excellent performance of Chippa and Namibia national team goalkeeper Lloyd Kazapua, who came up with numerous acrobatic saves to preserve the deadlock. Kazapua’s save on a 5th minute Modiba free kick stood out in the first half as a major reason the match remained scoreless by halftime.
Klate doubled down on his strategy after the break and Sundowns continued to struggle in finding a way through. Kazapua largely avoided having to do any major work until the 87th minute when Modiba curled another dangerous free kick on target but the 33-year-old custodian came up huge again to tip the ball onto the crossbar and over. However, soon after Modiba’s corner kick delivery saw Mvala’s flick on provide the golden opportunity made for Shalulile and last season’s top scorer made no mistake to beat his Namibia teammate from close range.
Highlights are below.
