Unbeaten in two matches, parts of the crowd waited in anticipation as the sold-out match was delayed by 30 minutes to accommodate both sets of fans, who flocked in to witness the battle between two giants.
Both sides knew their unbeaten streaks were in danger and In true heavyweight fashion the sound of the first whistle kicked off an action packed 45 minutes that had everything, including all three goals of the match.
Headlined by the mystery surrounding former Brazilian Gaston Sirino and the kind of performance he would deliver as he met his former employers for the first time, there was no love lost and he was afforded no room despite his desire and hunger to prove his worth to his former teammates.
A blistering start by the home side with the power, precision and accuracy of Ranga Chivaviro sent the crowd into a frenzy as hope became believable and they took the lead.
The Champions hit back, and as their nickname suggests, they did it in style as two goals in six minutes clinched the tie for Mamelodi Sundowns. Lucas Ribeiro Costa and Iqraam Rayners’ goals temporarily took the defending Champions to the top of the log with three wins from three matches.
Head coach Mngqithi was happy with his side’s performance, even after falling behind in the ninth minute.
“I think we started the game well. Just when we thought we had control of the game, we conceded a goal, that I think we lacked a bit of focus... at that stage. I have not looked at it again, but from what I saw, Ranga was between my centre backs and I don’t know how it happened because the expectation would have been to at least have one behind him.
“Immediately after we conceded we then took control of the game again, and we exploited a lot of possibilities in between the lines. The moment we started to use our width, that's when the game started to open up.”
Chiefs on the other hand lost the early momentum they had after scoring the goal, and it was only in the second half that they took the game to Sundowns, but to no avail.
Amakhosi coach Nasredine Nabi tasted his first defeat in the PSL and he was not impressed with his players’ response to conceding the two quick goals. He did not mince his words about the level of tolerance for losing, irrespective of a better showing in the second half.
“A Kaizer Chiefs player must have a specific DNA, they must dislike losing and have a winning mentality. After Sundowns scored their first goal we observed some players dropping their heads and the demons of last season came back.
“This kind of mentality I will not accept, I didn’t make any changes because I’m persistent in my strategy. I’m not happy at all because I dislike losing. The performance might be better than last season, but this is Kaizer Chiefs, we don’t accept losing and we cannot be happy because we played a good second half.”