Rulani’s men to carry on ruling the roost
● Mamelodi Sundowns will look to maintain their dominance in South Africa and continental football in 2024 after yet another exhilarating 12 months in which both the club’s men and women’s teams won some important trophies in Africa.
Bafana Ba Style kicked off 2023 by claiming a sixth successive DStv Premiership title before wrapping it up by winning the inaugural African Football League in November. It was only the Caf Champions League, Nedbank Cup, MTN8 and Carling Knockout Cup which eluded the Brazilians in 2023.
But with all due respect to some of these domestic competitions, it is only the Champions League that coach Rulani Mokwena will feel his club missed the most after losing to Moroccan club Wydad Athletic in the semifinal in May.
But Masandawana went on to get an appropriate revenge on Wydad when they beat them 3-2 on aggregate in the AFL final — the crowning moment happening at their Pretoria stomping ground, Loftus Stadium, in November, with Aubrey Modiba capping the highlights of the final with an audacious chip when Sundowns won 2-0 in the second leg in November.
It is, however, the team’s irrepressible form that they continue to show in the Premiership in 2023 that many local football fans won’t forget. Sundowns won the league title with seven matches to spare — a new record in the PSL history — and also ended the season 16 points clear of second-placed Orlando Pirates.
There are many records broken by Sundowns in the 2022-2023 campaign but the most noticeable one was that, for the first time, Mokwena’s team beat Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates home and away. No other PSL club has ever done this in a single season against these Soweto giants.
Sundowns Ladies were equally bullish and dominant in 2023, beating Moroccan club Sporting Casablanca to win the Caf Women’s Champions League for the second time in three years. The women’s side finished with three titles, also having won the Cosafa Women’s Champions League and Hollywoodbets Super League titles under the stewardship of longserving Jerry Tshabalala.
The new year will start with Sundowns in a good position to win a record-extending seventh successive Premiership gong and a second Champions League title as half of the job has already been done in both competitions.
The Brazilians set a new PSL record of most successive wins at the beginning of the season with 11 wins before their run was stalled by Cape Town City, who held them to a 0-0 draw last Sunday. It will take SuperSport United, currently placed second after 15 matches, to win all their 15 secondround matches to stop Sundowns from winning the league with 58 points.
Sundowns may reach 58 points with 10 league matches remaining this season if they win their next eight matches, including the last two this year against Moroka Swallows (called off because of Swallows problems on Wednesday) and Polokwane City on Saturday.
Players such as Peter Shalulile, Khuliso Mudau, Lucas Riberio Costa, Ronwen Williams and Marcelo Allende have been in hot form all season and should continue playing a key part as Sundowns seek to stroll to a seventh league title in May next year. Teboho Mokoena, the 2022-2023 PSL Player of the Season, scored a critical goal for Sundowns in their last Champions League match against Pyramids FC of Egypt. The goal put Sundowns on top of their group and on course to make the competition’s last eight for the eighth successive season.
It will be winning the Champions League that will bring great satisfaction to Mokwena — and having outclassed both Wydad and Egyptian giants Al Ahly in the AFL this year, the Brazilians will fancy a chance of adding a second star on their yellow jersey.