Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies have started the defence of their Hollywoodbets Super League on a positive note, defeating a stubborn JVW 2-0 on Sunday (9 March) at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, near Pretoria.
The five time league champions also maintained their 100 percent record of winning every opening match of the season since the inception of the South African elite women’s football league back in the 2019/20 campaign.
The prolific Boitumelo Rabale scored the first goal for the Brazilians 20 minutes into the match, before Bongiwe Thusi of JVW increased the lead with through an own goal in the 28th minute.
Following the suspension Jerry Tshabalala on misconduct charges.
Banyana ba Style had a new face leading the technical bench, Godfrey Sapula. The former Bafana Bafana has been appointed interim coach.
“It is obviously great to start with a win in my first game as a coach of our women’s team, and in the women’s game in general. I am quite pleased with the result, but there is still a lot of work to be done as I am still trying to get the correct combinations. The first match was important to see if we are how well we prepared during pre-season,” said Sapula.
“Remember we also have a good number of players who did not play, some were played out of position just to see what we have, so we will be giving more players a chance in the next games because we are a work in progress.”
This was JVW’s second game of the season, the only team so far to have played twice. In their opening clash of the campaign, they defeated Ezemvelo Ladies 3-2 but registered their first loss to Sundowns Ladies.
“We knew what we were up against, and I am proud of the fighting spirit of the girls. Games between the two sides are never easy, we will go back and fix what we need to fix for the next game as we are trying to get our playing system in place,” said Janine van Wyk, coach of JVW.
In an earlier match, which was accompanied by torrential rain, TUT Matsatsantsa Ladies played to a goalless draw against Limpopo’s First Touch Ladies in the other match of the double header.
By Matlhomola Morake
