DStv Premiership season openers a dreary affair
THE second edition of the DStv Premiership began with somewhat of a whimper, the first two matches of the campaign dishing out unconvincing football and with no particular team giving an indication they’d be the ones to beat.
Already, there’s no club boasting a perfect record, with all the 16 sides having dropped points and seven teams sharing the top spot on four points and just two winless.
Of course, we can look at that and see ours as a competitive league with teams that are evenly-matched.
It is the fact that a lot of the clubs appeared as if they’ve just been put together yesterday which is worrying.
The refrain that such and such a team ‘is still trying to gel’ has littered the match commentaries so much one is left wondering what it is that our clubs do during the pre-season.
At the beginning of a new season one expects to see players charged up, eager to excite and impress having been away from the game for some time. But in our league the word fatigue has already been used this early. You wonder just what it is the players get up to during the off-season.
Of concern, too, has been the profligacy in front of goals – the return to that bad old habit of playing to avoid defeat seemingly back in full force.
That Chippa United completed their match against Mamelodi Sundowns the other day without as much as an attempt at goal told the sad story of our game. Yes Gavin Hunt is not famous for his attacking brand of football. But he could never be accused of playing negative good old Huntie.
Yet such is his new boss’s trigger happiness that the multiple championship winning coach would rather have kept Sundowns from scoring and getting a point than attempt to win a game and risk being punished.
You’ve already heard some excitement among the Chiefs fans at the sight of the combination between Khama Billiant and Keagan Dolly during their victory over Baroka FC – the Amakhosi faithful anticipating the duo to be as deadly as they were along with Leonardo Castro when they were called the CBD at Sundowns.
Billiat should have scored at least a hat-trick in that match though and those kinds of misses should not be tolerated, at least not from such a seasoned campaigner as they could prove very costly come the end of the season.
The international break provides the coaches and their technical teams to work on improving their teams following what they’d have picked up from the two opening matches, and here’s to hoping that they return to action an improved lot.
For a league that claims to be the best on the continent and among the top in the world, we deserve way better than the dull fare we’ve been treated to so far.
Come on, make us want to go back to the stadiums again, please.