Johannesburg - It was injustice the way Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena underplayed the debut performance of Chilean international Marcelo Allende in Wednesday’s 3-0 rout over Stellenbosch FC at Loftus.
Allende entered the fray as a 69th-minute substitute and seven minutes later he was on the scoresheet with the team’s third and final goal. During his cameo, he was creative and breathed life into Sundowns' attacking sorties.
"It’s good to see Marcelo, but let’s be patient with him," said Mokwena. “He still has a lot to do and adapt to the club.
"We know what he can do and the club has worked very hard to bring him on board. Congratulations to the management for very good recruitment."
Allende, who made his national team debut for Chile in December last year, has over the years been one of his country's finest juniors and has raked in caps for the national age-group sides.
Allende's goal followed an assist by another substitute Thapelo Morena who was brought on midway through the first half to replace injured Uruguayan Gaston Sirino. Morena produced a five-star performance and walked off with the man-of-the-match award.
Striker Peter Shalulile and defender Rushine De Reuck would also have been serious contenders for the award after significant contributions to the team's dominant display. Mokwena felt the team can play even better.
“Peter Shalulile works his socks off for the team like always," said Mokwena "You can talk about a complete team performance.
“We know we’re still very far off from what we can do, very far off. We can still do more.
“You can talk about how good Rushine was, how good Brian Onyango was, how good was Andile Jali and Neo (Maema) again also very good tactically."
Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker felt the early goal his team conceded hindered their performance.
“When you play a team of Sundowns’ calibre and you concede as early as we did, a lot of your planning and a lot of your thinking around the game gets derailed," said Barker.
"To allow them to have got that early goal put us on the back foot. They just looked sharper; they outclassed us in many sorts of situations.
“Obviously, you know, after a 3-0 loss, you always sort of look and reflect on what went wrong. There were a couple of things I think we can take from the game and the lessons we learned."
IOL Sport