They say that revenge is a dish best served cold and Mamelodi Sundowns tended TS Galaxy a platter of cold mogodu with a 4-1 thrashing at the Atteridgeville Stadium last night.
Twelve days ago, Galaxy handed the champions their second loss of the season. Kamogelo Sebelebele broke the hearts of Masandawana and brought them back to earth with a bang – this after the Brazilians had walloped Orlando Pirates 4-1 a few days before.
In that first-round match, The Rockets had done their homework on Sundowns and their game plan was flawless. But yesterday, Galaxy’s normally slick passing was replaced with the kind of accuracy usually associated with drunkards at a pub urinal – they were candidly spraying their passes all over the place.
In all fairness, Galaxy could have been buried under an avalanche of goals had Peter Shalulile and Iqraam Rayners not missed a gluttony of scoring opportunities.
Sundowns are slowly but surely gathering points and the 12-point gap between them and second-placed Orlando Pirates remains. In the earlier game yesterday, the Buccaneers clinched a hard-fought, last-minute 2-1 win over Cape Town City at Orlando and a draw would have dented their chances and hopes of catching up with the unstoppable Sundowns. The Tshwane side is on 48 points with Bucs on 36 with three games in hand.
Sundowns showed their dominance and brilliance in attack with a rat-a-tat spell that saw them going 2-0 up as early as the seventh minute.
The vociferous Sundowns supporters, who blanketed the main grandstand in a sea of yellow, had not even cleared their voices or taken their seats when Shalulile opened the scoring in the first minute. And when Rayners made it 2-0 six minutes later, it really looked like it was going to be a closed-coffin burial for the travelling team.
However, Galaxy regrouped and fought back. They gave the Brazilians a scare when Siphiwe Mahlangu reduced the deficit three minutes later.
It looked like Galaxy were up for a fight and the Downs fans were silenced.
But it was not to be as newcomer Jayden Adams rifled home the third goal from close range after a flowing move from Lucas Costa Ribeiro and Thapelo Morena on the right side of the Sundowns attack.
Victor Letsoalo’s red in the first half did not really help matters, in fact it put his teammates under immense pressure as the home side ran riot. With a man short, Galaxy were chasing shadows and leaving gaps in defence and midfield.
The home side came back from the break determined, and Rayners grabbed his brace with a similar goal to that of Adams’s. After that, it was a question of how many more goals were coming and Galaxy did well to keep the scoreline at 4-1.
Sundowns’ next match is against Sekhukhune United in Polokwane on Wednesday night while Galaxy will host Golden Arrows at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
