Cape Town - On Saturday night, Pitso Mosimane's Al Ahly danced to the tune of Mamelodi Sundowns' M People Kennedy Mweene and Thapelo Morena, in front of their crazy-loud fans at the Cairo International Stadium.
Just like the British band M People captured the imagination of the music world in the 1990s, Mweene and Morena imposed themselves on this blockbuster in spectacular fashion. Morena created history by scoring Sundowns' first goal in Cairo against Al Ahly, CAF's Team of the Century'.
Zambian Mweene, at 37 years the oldest player on the field, saw to it that the history remained intact by the time Moroccan referee Rédouane Jiyed sounded the final whistle.
Sundowns' 1-0 win saw them consolidate their top spot on the Group A standings of the CAF Champions League, with seven points after three matches.
Morena's goal came just four minutes after joining the fray as an 81st-minute substitute. He timed his run perfectly to latch onto a slide-rule pass from Peter Shalulile, who had picked up a poor clearance by the opposition defence.
Shalulile's scoring feed showed he is worth his weight in gold. Firstly, he produced a classy touch to gain control of a shallow clearance and then showed great vision with a defence-splitting pass.
Morena's anticipation, which saw run in behind the defence out wide, was out of the top drawer. Once he pounced on Shalulile's feed, he let rip with an angle scorcher that whistled past Al Ahly goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy. The latter did not have time to react and remained motionless in front of his goal, such was the velocity of the ripsnorter.
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It was a moment of brilliance from the super-sub Morena, but on the night, it could not eclipse the stellar performance of Mweene, who made the run-on XI by default. He emerged with the best individual performance on the night.
Mweene had played second fiddle to the injured Ugandan Denis Onyango, who kept clean sheets in Sundowns' opening two Group A games. Thanks to Mweene's heroics, and at times it bordered on the miraculous, Sundowns have yet to concede a goal after three Group A games.
There was one Mweene lapse after he failed to gather cleanly late in the match. The ball spilt obligingly for Al Ahly substitute Taher Mohamed. He calmly slotted the ball goalwards, but defender Rushine de Reuck, had him covered and cleared off the line.
In the three-man defence, De Reuck had a superb game alongside Rivaldo Coetzee and Brian Mandela.
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With a name like Mandela, the Kenyan fullback could be relied on for a touch of 'Madiba Magic', and he did not disappoint. Late in the match, Al Ahly substitute Percy Tau had enjoyed a strong run towards the Sundowns goals, but Mandela, who was solid all night, dispossessed him to avert the danger.
Mandela is repaying the faith shown in him after he spent most of the season on the sidelines nursing injuries.
Coetzee and midfielder Lyle Lakay were the other two top performers. Coetzee read Al Ahly's attacking plans well, and Lakay's potent left boot, with a bit of luck, could have turned the match on its head. At one stage Lakay, reeled in a goalmouth cross but the ball curled wickedly goalwards and struck the crossbar.
Captain Andile Jali, Teboho Mokoena Peter Shalulile would be grouped as the next best performers. Jali jumped on the attackers like a rash and in the process, he suffered harsh knocks, as Al Ahly battled to contain his attentions.
What an absolute screamer from Morena!🤯
— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) February 27, 2022
Rate the thunderous effort from 1️⃣➖🔟 in the comments below!👆#Sundowns pic.twitter.com/ve6Fxonzgo
Jali left the field early in the second half and his replacement Haashim Domingo was a revelation in the midfield. He remained calm and composed and gave opposition little leeway to move in central positions.
For Al Ahly, the central midfielder Hamdi Fathi was far and away their best player. He has a penchant for joining the attack and he came within a whisker of saving the match for the Egyptian giants in the dying minutes of the game. Fathi rose above the defence to connect from a corner kick with a brilliant header but was denied by an equally brilliant save from the acrobatic Mweene.
With this stroke of genius, Mweene consigned the Tshwane giants to the history books as the first-ever Sundowns side win against Al Ahly on Egyptian soil.
@Herman_Gibbs