Vilakazi shines in Downs win

Pretoria - Out of favour Benedict Vilakazi proved his point to Mamelodi Sundowns coach Hristo Stoichkov by coming off the bench to score his side's second goal helping the Brazilians to a 3-1 win over struggling Jomo Cosmos in an Absa Premiership clash played at the Super Stadium on Sunday.

Vilakazi, the former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana star, has complained that the former Bulgarian and Barcelona ace had not given him a chance since he arrived to take charge of Downs at the start of the season.

But the former Bulgarian national coach decided to throw Vilakazi into the action in the 59th minute and the move paid off handsomely with Vilakazi making the most of his chance by producing a spellbinding 30 plus minutes that must have impressed his hard-to-please coach.

For Cosmos, the defeat sees them rooted to the bottom of the table with only nine points from 13 fixtures.

Cosmos started off like a house on fire and unsettled their hosts with their pace. Ezenkosi silenced the home crowd when Daniel Gaborone latched onto a long ball, showed tremendous composure by calmly firing past keeper Brian Baloyi to put Cosmos 1-0 ahead in the sixth minute.

The goal inspired Cosmos who took the game to their more experienced opponents. Cosmos Malawian defender Ousmane Berthe went on the attack and was fractionally wide of the Downs upright in the 12th minute.

But Downs started getting their act together. Hard working captain Esrom Nyandoro tried his luck with a long range 30 metre strike which flew over the Cosmos crossbar in the 16th minute.

The Brazilians and the Premiership’s leading goal scorer Katlego Mphela showed his skills by turning his marker inside out and unleashed a great shot which inched past the post on 22 minutes.

Downs striker Mabhuti Khenyeza was wide of the woodwork with a 20 metre effort in the 27th minute. But on the half hour mark, Khenyeza missed a chance to equalise when he was set up by a great ball from Lebo "Cheeseboy" Mokoena. But the Downs striker, under pressure from Berthe, blasted his shot well over the crossbar from close range.

Cosmos successfully used the counter attack to keep Downs on their toes and could have make it 2-0 five minutes from the break when Gaborone picked up a tremendous back heel from teammate Sekou Camara but instead of passing to a better placed teammate inside the Sundowns penalty area, Gaborone when for glory and fired into the side netting.

Cosmos' veteran goalkeeper Avril Phali showed his experience when he did brilliantly to save Papi Zothwani’s shot in the 48th minute when the situation favoured the Sundowns midfielder who was one on one with the keeper but Phali came out on top by making a memorable save.

But Downs' pressure paid off in the 56th minute when Mphela hammered home the equaliser and his 10th goal of the league season when he converted a pinpoint cross form the livewire Mokoena giving Phali no chance.

The game was then turned around when Stoichkov brought on Vilakazi for Zothwane.

Vilakazi made an immediate impact when he grabbed the winner in the 60th minute with a well taken goal from inside the Cosmos penalty area.

He then threaded through a defence splitting pass to Mphela who forced another good save from Phali in the 68th minute as Downs went for the kill and Cosmos seemed to run out of steam.

Phali came to Cosmos's rescue again in the 75th minute when he pulled off a stunning save from a goal-bound Vilakazi shot and the former Pirates star showed he is not a spent force in local soccer.

Matters took another bad turn for Cosmos when Berthe was sent off in the 79th minute for a second bookable offence which forced Ezenkosi to play the final 11 minutes a man short. Downs should have made it 3-1 in the 89th minute but were thwarted again by a point blank save by Phali who prevented Khenyeza getting onto the score sheet.

But Downs did make it 3-1 when debutant youngster from the club's development structures Siyabonga Ngubane scored in injury time with his first touch after replacing Khenyeza. Phali had saved a shot from the ever dangerous Vilakazi but the 20-year-old Ngubane started his PSL career in fairytale fashion by slotting into an empty net.