Golden Arrows survive Sundowns pressure to take MTN8 semi-final first-leg lead

Golden Arrows head coach Pitso Dladla praised his players’ resilience after they held on to beat Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0 in the first leg of their MTN8 semi-final.

Sede Dion scored his first goal of the season in the first half to give Arrows the advantage. Sundowns applied sustained pressure after the interval, but Golden Arrows protected their lead and secured a narrow victory.

Dladla said his players had shown the unity required to withstand difficult periods against a strong Mamelodi Sundowns side.

“to work together as a group during times where they should suffer, they suffer together. But look one can’t really divulge we’re playing Mamelodi Sundowns football club three weekends in a row. But credit goes to the players,” Dladla told SuperSport after the match.

The result came during a demanding sequence of fixtures against Sundowns, although Dladla did not go into further detail about the schedule. His main satisfaction was with the way his squad responded collectively when the pressure increased.

Arrows had prepared to attack through quick transitions, and Dladla felt that approach produced opportunities. However, he acknowledged that his team could have executed the plan more consistently and needed to make better decisions about when to break forward and when to retain possession.

“We planned for those transitions, but I believe we could’ve done better we still going to work on them, and another thing is we should be clear whether it’s a transition or we should possess the possession more. But I think we did that well.

“I believe we could’ve gotten another goal or two from those transitions, but we will work on them properly.”

Dladla also highlighted the focus required from his defenders to keep Sundowns from finding an equaliser. Golden Arrows regularly practise scenarios in which their defence is placed under pressure, and the coach said that preparation helped his players deal with the intensity of the semi-final.

He was nevertheless unhappy with how deep Arrows were forced to defend for long stretches of the match. While the defensive approach helped preserve their lead, Dladla admitted it was not the way his side wanted to play throughout the encounter.

“Yes, the concentration is high from our players, we simulate our situations that put our defence under pressure so that when we got to the game it’s not something new and we should also be honest that we defended too deep.

“We did not like that, but there were times it looked scary but we survived. The heart, the heart from the players,” Dladla said.

Golden Arrows will take their 1-0 advantage into the second leg, with Sundowns needing to overturn the deficit to reach the MTN8 final. Dladla’s immediate focus, however, is on improving the transition play that could have delivered a wider margin in the opening match.