Sundowns coming home, but showed the world who they are at CWC

Mamelodi Sundowns had their chances for the win that would have put them into the last 16 in a hard-fought Club World Cup (CWC) clash against Fluminense at Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday, but the South Americans shut the South Africans out for a 0-0 draw.

Fluminense got the result they needed to advance. However, it showed the respect they had for a Sundowns who have had a competitive, at times thrilling sojourn at Fifa’s expanded, 32-team tournament that the more illustrious team resorted to shutting the game out for much of the 90 minutes in a hot Miami.

Coach Miguel Cardoso’s Sundowns will take the plane home disappointed, but should hold their heads high. They got tongues wagging internationally with the quality of their football, earning a first-ever CWC win, 1-0 against South Korea’s Ulsan HD, then losing 4-3 in a thriller against Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund in one of the games of the group stages.

Two groups are left to be completed, but all four African teams are officially out of the tournament. Sundowns arguably made the biggest impression of the clubs from the continent.

Downs attempted to throw some knockout blows in patches but, with less possession than they enjoyed in their first two games and Fluminense playing the percentages and turning on their not inconsiderable muscle to stifle play when they could, it was not always easy to land those.

Sundowns started fired-up, Fluminense fought back into the game and in the second half it took a strong effort form the South American outfit to keep the Africans club in check, which they executed with formidable precision.

The Brazilian team knew, with Borussia leading Ulsan in the other game (which the Germans won 1-0), a draw would see them through, a defeat Sundowns. So they sucked the oxygen out in the heat of Hard Rock Stadium, where the 3pm Florida-time kickoff game was played in 30°C heat.

Fluminense, aware of the threat of Sundowns, could not commit numbers to pushing for a win that would have seen them top the group — the Pretoria team were nothing but competitive until the end in the US.

Downs came out like Muhammad Ali against George Foreman in Kinshasa, throwing right-hand leads to try to knock Fluminense out in the opening exchanges. When they could not, the Brazilian club regained its footing and edged play to the break, though mostly being restricted to half-chances as Sundowns kept their composure at the back.

The South African club were impressive as their early movement opened Fluminense a few times and kept goalkeeper Fabio on his toes.

Lucas Ribeiro danced past a defender and struck from edge of the area to force a stop. Ribeiro then produced a superb through-pass to put Tashreeq Matthews one-on-one with Fabio on the left, the keeper up to the save. Moments later Divine Lunga struck from a narrow angle on the left, Fabio again blocking.

Those three chances all came inside the opening 10 minutes.

Fluminense settled and started to muscle territory and force a few errors in their half from Downs, the South Americans dangerous at set pieces.

Big centreback Ignacio headed wide. Jhon Arias shot across the face of goal from a tight angle on the right. From a partially-cleared corner Nonato volleyed inches wide from just outside the box.

Back from the break, Jayden Adams came into the midfield for Teboho Mokoena, who had got himself booked and would risk a dismissal if he stayed on.

Sundowns again came out from the change rooms again trying to apply pressure on the front foot.

It was Fluminense, though, who had their best chance of the game early on as Arias was played free on the left and squared, Argentinian striker Germán Cano sweeping a volley onto the left upright.

Fluminense’s effort at a knockout had also not succeeded, and they turned up the closing of spaces and muscling of possession to shut the game out from there.