Rulani creating own Sundowns legacy
Pitso Mosimane has in the past said that current Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena will eventually become a better coach than him.
Judging by Sundowns’ stats this season, it looks Mosimane’s former assistant coach is on the right path to creating his own legacy at the club.
It’s scary just how Mokwena’s team is dominating the domestic league because they are simply bullying everyone around them.
The PSL title will without a shadow of a doubt end up at Chloorkop for a record-extending seventh time in a row.
It’s not a matter of if, but when the Tshwane giants will wrap up the league title. One also wonders just how many more records are Sundowns going to break this season? Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over AmaZulu stretched their unbeaten run to an unbelievable 40 games in the DStv Premiership.
If the chasing pack keeps dropping points, Mokwena’s team could well claim the league earlier than they did last season. Sundowns won the league with seven matches to spare in the last campaign, another PSL record.
In September last year, the Brazilians surpassed Kaizer Chiefs’ 18-year record of 31 games without a defeat. On that occasion they brushed aside Stellenbosch FC 3-1 to go 32 games unbeaten.
Nearly six months later, Masandwawana are living up to their motto “The Sky is the Limit’’ and they are showing no signs of slowing down. When the season started, they set another PSL-era record of winning their opening 11 league games of the season in a row.
The Brazilians also broke another Chiefs record of eight successive wins from the start of the season, a feat they achieved in 2014.
It is worth mentioning that the overall record for longest run from the start of the season still belongs to Chiefs. According to the league, Amakhosi won 17 successive games from the start of the 1991 season before Bloemfontein Celtic brought their run to an end.
It looks like the decorated Mosimane knew something we all didn’t know about his former protegé because if his charges maintain this form for the remainder of the season, they might go down as one of the best teams the PSL has ever seen.
Since taking over a sole head coach in 2022, the 37-year-old has remarkably not lost a league game on 36 occasions. Mokwena has in that time guided Sundowns to the league and African Football League glory.
Now the question one everyone’s lips is whether Sundowns can go the whole season unbeaten and become the first team in South Africa to do so. They have 14 games left to attain invincible status.
In my opinion, even if they end up with a blemish on their record, that this generation under Mokwena will be regarded as the best.