Who’s in it to win it?
The fall of the Orlando Pirates double-treble-winning dynasty precipitated a battle of wits between Stuart Baxter’s Kaizer Chiefs and Pitso Mosimane’s Mamelodi Sundowns. But now, for the first time in what feels like ages, the Absa Premiership title race
SUPERSPORT UNITED
SuperSport United have taken on the guise of the Kaizer Chiefs leaguewinning team, with their acquisitions from Soweto such Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Reyaad Pieterse, Kingston Nkhatha and Tefu Mashamaite adding championship credentials to the cloak room. Former Amakhosi coach Stuart Baxter also crossed the Jukskei and headed north, via an elongated route that took him to Turkish club Genclerbirligi – a fling that lasted about as long as a Kardashian marriage. But at SuperSport, the Brit has been given the keys to a vintage Porsche. With material from his previous championship-winning team, Baxter is ready to launch an assault that not many saw coming on the Premiership title. “This is not said with any disrespect to our squad, but we didn’t expect to be at the top of the log by the turn of the year,” Baxter tells KICK OFF. “The number of injuries we suffered, being a new season with new players ... I would have been happy if we were somewhere up there among the leaders at the halfway stage. “The guys that came here from Chiefs were well-respected by the others. It improves the level and quality of the squad and it pulls people along. Those players are winners, but the players I inherited are themselves great professionals. Michael Morton, Clayton Daniels, these are warriors. The former Chiefs players raised the bar slightly.” The league cannot be won in February, but Baxter reckons it can certainly be lost. “Three points is three points, whenever you get it. But you need to pick them up early, to be there and thereabouts. If you don’t do that you could fall out of the race completely,” he says. And Baxter feels it will be a particulary close battle this year. “It could be the most open title race of the last decade. At the halfway mark, in my experience, there’s been a very clear indication on who’s going to win it. The times I won it at Chiefs, we were pretty clear out in front and the times Sundowns won it, there was a clear indication of their dominance at the halfway stage.”
BIDVEST WITS
Aside from Mamelodi Sundowns’ embarrassment of riches, it was safe to assume that Bidvest Wits had the best squad in the league. Their balance, attacking artillery and international experience at the back made them most people’s pick for the team that could wrestle the title from the Pretoria giants. Add a cunning coach in the shape of Gavin Hunt and a calculating chief executive in Jose Ferreira, then one would be forgiven for christening the 2016/17 season Wits’ year. They held all the playing cards: Darren Keet, Thulani Hlatshwayo, Buhle Mkhwanazi, Sifiso Hlanti, Elias Pelembe, Daine Klate, Cuthbert Malajila, Xola Mlambo, Thabang Monare and Gabadinho Mhango. To show off, they could bring Mokgakolodi Ngele from the bench or switch Keet with Moeneeb Josephs at a whim without Hunt losing hairs. The loss of golden boy Sibusiso Vilakazi to rivals Mamelodi Sundowns was scarcely felt, especially as Klate made magic with his conjuring left foot while playing in an advanced central role behind the striker. A masterstroke by Hunt, who recognised that his former SuperSport protégé had lost a yard of pace. The flanks were reserved for the mesmerising Mhango and the man whose hips lie to defenders all the time: Pelembe. They opened the season by mopping the floor with Kaizer Chiefs in front of their intimate home crowd in August – a marker emphatically laid down. They led the standings longer than anybody else and were unbeaten before being stunned by SuperSport United in Mbombela – the same venue of the infamous 6-1 defeat of Pirates. Hunt’s runaway locomotive was rocked to its hinges. Cape Town City, the other pretenders, inflicted the next telling blow with a 3-2 win. They finished the first half of the programme with just one win in five matches and five points from a possible 15. But all evidence points to Wits rising up to the challenge once more, aided by the return of the everimpressive wunderkind Phakamani Mahlambi. The 19-year-old forward may prove pivotal in helping Hunt get the title Wits have longed for since the previous century. But it won’t be easy. Last season Wits let a slew of points go that would have heaped pressure on eventual winners Sundowns. No doubt Hunt won’t let his troops make the same mistake this time around.
“IT COULD BE THE MOST OPEN TITLE RACE OF THE LAST DECADE.”
KAIZER CHIEFS
Tomfoolery characterised the first half of the season for the Glamour Boys. Their coach, Steve Komphela, was the butt of all social media memes almost weekly as his strange aphorisms (nay, Komphelarisms) took attention from the desperate performances. But as soon as Komphela gave up the clown act, the results started showing promise. Komphela is a smart man; smarter probably than anyone can ever estimate. His greatest trick during the tough last six months of 2016 was to deflect attention from his players and onto himself. He didn’t mind taking the heat, the derisory comments and the crowd violence that was directed at him after each below-par performance. He did himself a great favour by winning the trust back of senior players Siphiwe Tshabalala and Bernard Parker, who might have dropped their heads after they lost their midfield mainstay ‘Yeye’ Letsholonyane. With so much experience still left in the tank, it was no surprise when the grandmaster, Kaizer Motaung himself, pronounced, boldly and unwaveringly, that Chiefs could still win the league. Indeed, being one point behind the leaders means they are not out of it by any means. They’ve added some sauce in Joseph Malongoane, who put in stellar performances in late 2016. Komphela, though, insisted that nothing could be achieved if they don’t cure themselves of the ills brought by inconsistency. “We’ve been inconsistent in the PSL this season,” Komphela says. “And the team that can hold a little bit of consistency will win the championship because most of us are unbelievably inconsistent. “The results tell the story. The minute you start winning, be consistent. There are people who still have matches to play, but it is better to look at the points you have rather than the matches you still have to play. “By winning two games back-toback immediately gives an indication that you are on form; that’s how tight it is at the top. But we still have to keep our feet grounded.”
ORLANDO PIRATES
They say in modern football you have to build from the back. Orlando Pirates have inverted modern football logic and have destroyed themselves from the back. Goalkeeping howlers have characterised their season so far. The precedent was set when Muhsin Ertugral stubbornly insisted on sticking with Felipe Ovono between the sticks even though even the blind could see he was a liability. Ovono’s ticket out of the club should have been booked when he fumbled an innocuous cross, which allowed ‘ Tyson’ Hlatshwayo to steal the winner in a 2-1 loss to The Students. Wits went on to win the MTN8 after that; the Bucs, meanwhile, wait for a piece of silverware to attach to the 80th anniversary celebrations. The next man in, Brighton Mhlongo, fell victim to a vintage performance by Matsatsantsa in Mbombela that led to Pirates’ record-equalling league defeat [6-1, in case you had forgotten the scoreline]. Ertugral had seen enough and he quit at the post-match television interview. Jackson Mabokgwane was thrust in into the deep end next, but the p problems deepened. Augusto Palac cios had the look of a man finding h his wife in a compromising position w with another man when he witn nessed Mabokgwane deliberately let a tame lob into goal that led to the d defeat to Bloemfontein Celtic. What is a coach to do? Mabokgwane put his hands up as if to say: “I can’t deal” (as the youngsters say these days). But Pirates will have to deal with th the prospect of fading title hopes as th they approach the second segment o of the season. They are currently 1 10th after only four wins and three lo losses, plus a strange tally of six d draws in 13 games. Of course, they cannot be ruled out of the title race, with the quality still left in Oupa Manyisa’s legs that’s able to drive them forward. The intrigue is that Pirates house the league’s leading goal-scorer, Tendai Ndoro, who is on a hot scoring streak at the moment. Ndoro’s genius is in the simplicity of the turn and shoot method. He’s scored 11 goals in 13 league games … scared yet?
MAMELODI SUNDOWNS
The defending champions were showered with honours at the 2016 CAF Awards in Nigeria in January for their exploits in winning the African Champions League. They achieved history by becoming the second South African side to lift the trophy, but it came at a cost to their stopstart domestic campaign. Their league season started on an underwhelming note with a draw at Maritzburg United, a game that intercepted a Champions League semi-final trip to Ndola against ZESCO United, before losing to Cape Town City 2-1 at Loftus. At that point though, Sundowns were splitting themselves into three pieces as the MTN8, league and Champions League commitments all came rushing in at full tilt. After propping up the bottom of the table for four months, they affected a turnaround in November, beating Polokwane City, Kaizer Chiefs, Lamontville Golden Arrows, Highlands Park (handsomely), Free State Stars and Baroka FC in a run of six wins and one defeat between November and December. But the African Nations Cup break has gifted Mosimane the chance to press the reset button and the players to recharge their batteries, having not had rest for two seasons. If you add Keagan Dolly’s schedule – having also helped the SA Under23s qualify for the Rio Olympics – you then realise quite how valuable the Christmas break has been for the Chloorkop outfit. They sit in seventh position with 19 points after only nine games. If they win their next five games in hand – against Celtic, Chippa United, Platinum Stars (at home and away) and Wits – they will have 31 points, six more than the current log leaders had after 14 games. Of course, a bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush. But with the quality retained in the line-up, with the likes of Percy Tau, Yannick Zakri and Sibusiso Vilakazi still turning on the style, Sundowns cannot be ruled out of the race to defend the title they took from Chiefs. That’s if this season’s Champions League doesn’t wreak havoc with their schedule again.