MATSHELANE MAMABOLO
MANQOBA MNGQITHI rarely celebrates his team’s goals, at least not openly and with the emotive gusto of other coaches. But the Mamelodi Sundowns coach was excitedly animated on Saturday when Peter Shalulile scored what some might have considered an inconsequential strike, given that the Brazilians had already secured their Carling Knockout victory over Golden Arrows.
The Namibian came off the bench at the Lucas Moripe Stadium to add his name alongside those of Thapelo Morena, Iqram Rayners, and Mthobi Mvala when he made the score 4-0 for Sundowns, before Kutlwano Atlhaku added a fifth with his first touch after coming on for a resounding victory by Mngqithi over a team he began his professional coaching career with.
The former teacher explained just why he acted somewhat out of character: “I think we have made it obvious that we have a responsibility to support Peter.
“We have done everything we can, even sometimes playing him in matches where he could be tired because we thought if he can have some minutes, he might score a goal and break that curse.”
Shalulile broke the curse at the weekend, scoring for the first time this season after having endured a goal drought – a drop in form that came about after he had a forgettable Africa Cup of Nations campaign at the beginning of the year.
“I was just too happy for him. I had to celebrate the goal because this boy is such a good professional.
“He gives everything to the team, he works very hard, always being in the right spaces, and he is always willing to help the team. When you see him struggling to get that goal, you can see now that he is playing with a lot of anxiety.
“But for whatever reason for this match, he looked very sharp. He looked like when he went to Namibia he came back with something, because he really looked very sharp.”
And now Mngqithi is hoping that his talisman will continue scoring, particularly with the other club’s main man, Themba Zwane, out injured for what could well be at least four months.
“It’s very important for me that Peter is in top form because we are going to need all the strikers going forward,” he said, praising his players for having their teammate’s back during his dark period.
“The support he has been getting from the team in general has been very good, and you saw it in the way they all celebrated his goal. I love this group because they are very sensible human beings, compassionate, and they have empathy.
“They were also sympathising with him during those hard moments. So, it was exciting to see the reaction after he scored.”
Incredibly, despite the big margin of victory, Mngqithi still felt his team could have done better.
“Let me congratulate Mamelodi Sundowns for scoring five, but we are still not aggressive enough.
“In the first half, we created chances and we could have scored more, but we did not take them. And I must say the score might not be a true reflection of their (Arrows') output because they had some moments where on a good day they could have done something.”
Shalulile did something that got him celebrating openly, though. The Namibian scored for the first time in a long time, and that is bad news for the rest of Sundowns’ future opponents.