The bad news for the DStv Premiership teams looking to stop the Mamelodi Sundowns juggernaut from dominating the league yet again is that Lucas Ribeiro Costa has not begun firing on all cylinders.
The Brazilian attacker has hit the ground running since joining the multiple championship winners in the close season from Belgian side Beveren.
Unlike most foreigners, who struggle and usually take time to find their footing in the South Africa, Ribeiro has slotted into the Sundowns team seamlessly and has already proven his money’s worth with some key goals.
Just last weekend he scored a brace and could easily have made it a hat-trick in Tanzania, where Sundowns made short work of Burundian outfit Bumamuru FC in a 4-0 hammering in their first leg, second preliminary round Caf Champions League clash.
It was the second time this season that the 24-year-old scored twice in one match after he got a double when Sundowns beat Polokwane City 2-0 at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
He has scored three more times in other matches, confirming his billing as the club’s marquee signing for the season.
Incredibly, Rulani Mokwena believes Ribeiro is yet to hit his straps. Speaking to the media as he looked ahead to today’s league clash away to Orlando Pirates, the Sundowns coach raved about his new found attacker.
“There’s still a lot of improvement for Lucas to make,” Mokwena said of the player who has already shown himself to be a cut above the rest with his intelligent runs into scoring positions, his finishing prowess, as well as his ability to create goal opportunities for his teammates with killer passes.
Not that any of those are new to Mokwena. “I am not pleasantly surprised by Lucas because I watched him play in a different position to what he is playing now,” he said.
“It was very clear from day one that when I watched him (before they signed him), I found that he had the qualities that the team needed. He has worked very, very hard to gain the trust of his teammates - in training and playing and on the premises I get the felling his teammates trust him.
“That is very important when a new player arrives ... ”
Ribeiro Costa has clearly repaid that trust by delivering key goals, which have helped see Sundowns boast a perfect record in league and Cup matches since the start of the season.
They will be looking to him to add to the goals in today’s tough clash against a Pirates side touted by many as potentially being Sundowns’ main threat to a seventh successive league title.
Pirates will no doubt be pinning their hopes on the free-scoring Zakhele Lepasa to help them inflict Sundowns’ first defeat of the campaign. But Brazilians defender Mosa Lebusa is well aware of the threat posed by the striker who has scored 10 goals in eight matches.
“(Lepasa) is in unbelievable form and it is good for the country. But we focus more on the team and not the individual. Maybe the key for us will be to cut the supply to him; don’t give him the chance,” Lebusa said.
“For me, it is nice to know that I am going to be tested by a person who is in top form. It makes you be on high concentration and on your toes all the time, although the whole team has to be on their toes for a game of such a high magnitude because we want to win it.”
You can bet the entire Pirates team will also be on their toes, especially with the threat of Ribeiro Costa looming large.
@Tshiliboy