Stats favour fatigued Sundowns in derby
SUPERSPORT HAVE NOT BEATEN SUNDOWNS SINCE MARCH 2013
Mamelodi Sundowns will likely arrive back home with a large dollop of fatigue after their trip to the tropics to play in the African Champions League, but for Sunday’s derby against SuperSport United they at least have statistics heavily on their side.
The Premier Soccer League champions were in Equatorial Guinea for the last week for their opening game of the new continental club competition campaign against bizarrely named Vegetarian Lions, winning 2-0, and will face them again at home this coming week.
But their priorities must first switch quickly to the domestic season - literally from the time they touch down at OR Tambo International Airport - and the Atteridgeville game against SuperSport, whose own preparations for the derby have been in serene circumstances and in stark contrast to the whirlwind schedule of their opponents.
SuperSport have been quietly preparing for this game, having had just two matches in the last three weeks with the last a 0-0 draw against high-flyers Bloemfontein Celtic on Wednesday.
Sundowns will be defending an unbeaten record in the league this season. They sit in fourth place, but have drawn six of their 10 matches played to date.
Against SuperSport the statistics are even better - it is not since March 2013, some 15 games ago, that SuperSport last beat Sundowns with Senegalese defender Mor Diouf hitting a stunning long-range winner from well inside his own half in the last minute to ensure the three points.
There was the Telkom Knockout tie between the two clubs two years ago that ended goalless and saw a 10-men SuperSport advance 3-1 on penalties, but that is in the record books as a draw.
It is one of the more one-sided rivalries in the PSL, even though the two teams have both tasted trophy success and done well in the African club competitions in recent years.
If ever SuperSport were to break a cycle of disappointment against their neighbours, then this weekend provides a real opportunity.
TAB soccer punters also have two major English derbies to bet on this weekend as Arsenal and Tottenham meet in London and then Everton try to win at Anfield against Liverpool for the first time since 1999.