While Mamelodi Sundowns are collecting points, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are stumbling about like toddlers at a children’s jamboree. Granted, it is still pretty much early in the season but at the rate things are going, it seems that by the time the two Soweto giants get up on their feet, so to speak, the Brazilians could be en route to their seventh successive league title, and their 14th since the PSL era started in 1996.
Before last night’s match against Chippa United, the Brazilians had already opened up a five-point lead over Pirates. Chiefs, if they win their league game against TS Galaxy in Mbombela this afternoon, will be tied with their neighbours, Pirates, on four points. After three rounds of league matches, a five-point gap is
rather bothersome – it is way too early for such supremacy.
Imagine how big the gap could become at the halfway mark after 15 matches, if the Soweto giants keep on dropping points in the manner they have been doing.
It would be a huge injustice to expect the likes of Cape Town City and SuperSport United to shoulder the responsibility of stopping the Sundowns juggernaut. It would be like pitting a Ferrari against a VW Beetle.
The Soweto giants must step up – they have been the custodians of club football for decades. Taking a beating from the tiny Mamelodi township lads is uncharacteristic of them.
If you take a squint at how both the Buccaneers and Amakhosi have fared in the transfer market in the off-season, it would be fair to expect them to give the Brazilians a tough time in the race for the league title.
The Buccaneers and Amakhosi have ended their stingy ways and infiltrated their bank accounts in terms of spending.
They did not just splurge money, they purchased cleverly and have beefed up their squads in the right places. The difference is not that huge to give Masandawana a run for their money. This thing of having a “farmers league” is not good for the well-being of our football.
A team winning the league title with seven matches remaining is as boring as watching grass grow.
The biggest problem with Bucs and Chiefs is the obsession to beat Sundowns and each other – forgetting that there’s a fountain of points from the other 13 teams. And that is how Sundowns have dominated the league in the past half-a-decade or so, thrashing the so-called smaller teams and putting the points in the bag.
This term, the Soweto giants have already dropped points to Chippa United – giving Chilli Boys delusional coach Morgan Mammila bragging rights and the bravado that he is the next Pitso Mosimane. Not so long ago, the man was brandishing a baton as a policeman and hasn’t even won the local Under-12 competition as a coach.
But well, the DStv Premiership also needs colourful characters and madcaps like Mammila – it has been dour for some time now.
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