Next 2 matches key for Sundowns
Defending PSL champions Mamelodi Sundowns will be bang on track to retain their title if they beat Polokwane City tonight and current log-leaders Wits at the weekend.
It could turn out to be a decisive couple of days in the race for Premier Soccer League honours as defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns play tonight and then face fellow front-runners Bidvest Wits in a top-of-the-table clash at the weekend.
Tonight’s game at Loftus Versfeld is a catch-up fixture for Sundowns, still balancing their bid to retain their domestic crown with the ambition of annexing the African Champions League.
They will be hosting Polokwane City, who have lost their last two matches and slipped down to eighth in the league standings. But they are an unpredictable outfit and won on their last trip to Pretoria against Pitso Mosimane’s side.
If Sundowns win by two goals, they will take over at the top of the table on goal difference and still have two games in hand over Wits, who they play away at the Bidvest Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Should Sundowns emerge victorious from both games, they will be sitting comfortably in the lead with games still to play and the title will be theirs for the taking again.
Wits’ hopes rest on bloodying Sundowns’ nose and holding them in the final stretch as the campaign moves into the last 10 weeks of the season.
Their preparation plans for the Sundowns game were derailed by a rescheduled trip (seven hours each way on the bus) they had to make to Venda yesterday for the Nedbank Cup tie against Black Leopards after last Wednesday’s planned clash was abandoned following a massive rainstorm.
Wits would have had nine days to prepare for Sundowns and now it is only four.
There is also still the chance for the likes of Cape Town City, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates to make a late surge for PSL honours, but the inconsistency of that trio makes that possibility seem remote.
Increasingly the race for the PSL title is between two clubs. And with fixtures in hand, it really is Sundowns for the taking if they can overcome Polokwane and Wits over the next few days.
They have had a decent rest since returning from African Champions League duty in the Ivory Coast and are well placed to win both.