Cape derby set to make the sparks fly
Here’s your chance to be a millionaire before the Festive Season. Saturday’s Soccer 13 kicks off with a massive R23-million carryover and the pool is set to total over R40 million! That sets the stage for a bomb payout and whatever happens, you can bank on an inflated dividend if you forecast the outcome of the 13 matches. And it costs only R2 to have a go. There are three other carryover TAB soccer pools on a grand weekend for football fans, starting with Friday’s Soccer 10 that includes the Cape derby.
Any challenge to Mamelodi Sundowns’ long-standing dominance of the local soccer scene was supposed to come from the likes of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, but as the halfway stage of the season fast approaches, it is inform coastal teams Cape Town City and Stellenbosch who look likely to offer the most resistance.
On Friday City and Stellenbosch meet in what could be an absorbing derby at the Danie Craven Stadium.
City are on a club-record run of six successive league wins and sit in second place in the PSL standings. Stellies last weekend qualified for the final of the Carling Knockout and have seven wins and a draw from their last eight games in an unprecedented run of form. Five of those wins for Stellenbosch have come away from home, the last three in a row and without conceding a goal.
Friday’s clash will be the ninth meeting between the two clubs with Stellenbosch having the upper hand over City historically. There have been five wins for the Winelands club in eight previous clashes (all in the league) and only two for City. Also Stellenbosch are unbeaten in their last five clashes with City, including winning home and away two seasons ago.
The Cape derby starts the weekend’s league fixtures, which are again disrupted by three clubs competing in African club competition. Other PSL games include a tough trip up to Polokwane City for Chiefs, who have lost more league matches than they have won so far this season.
Pirates beat Swallows on Tuesday night and play a second game inside five days when they host TS Galaxy on Saturday night. It is likely Galaxy will be distracted by their forthcoming Carling Knockout final against Stellenbosch, but equally they could be in a confident mood and ready to take on the Buccaneers away from home. Galaxy had yet to score an away goal this season before they got three against AmaZulu in Durban last Sunday.
Sundowns are in African Champions League action at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday, when they take on Pyramids of Egypt, and will looking to bounce back quickly after losing at TP Mazembe last Saturday.
Sundowns had not lost a game in Champions League since April 2022, when Petro Atletico of Angola beat them 2-1 in Luanda in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. Last season’s campaign saw them unbeaten, but eliminated on the away-goals rule in the semi-finals by Wydad Casablanca of Morocco after both legs were drawn.
Sundowns went 16 games without losing in the continent’s premier club competition and last Saturday’s setback will be galling, given how much better they were in the match in Lubumbashi. Rulani Mokwena’s men are fancied to get back to winning ways against Fagrie Lakay’s Pyramids.