DOWNS – GOOD & BAD

Congrats to Sundowns for masterminding five consecutive PSL championships. One runs short of superlatives to describe the club’s performance this season. Everything about them revolves around being the best: best attack, best defence, best midfield. Downs play comprehensive football and are brilliant in all departments. The most important attribute to their success is that they are playing as a collective. The technical department and players have a telepathic understanding. All credit to the coaching trio for their excellent man-management. More so, hats off to the chairman and his management for establishing a dependable model of organisational structure. To put things into perspective, Sundowns have been the most brilliant team in the CAF Champions League this season. In actual fact, their failure to reach the semi-finals was not a tactical failure. The defeat to Petro, rather, was a complacency-induced one. It seems the lofty Brazilians underestimated the Angolans in the first leg. This was their eventual downfall. Despite that upset, Sundowns have become one of the most formidable teams in Africa. The reigning PSL champions have been representing the entire Southern African region with distinction over the past six years. Sundowns are bridging the gap between the Southern African region and its North and West counterparts in terms of dominance in the Champions League. Keep it up, Masandawana! Batsirai Kativu, Johannesburg

Congratulations to Sundowns for clinching a fifth championship in a row. This is a team that had a vision and they know what they are doing. The PSL has turned into a one-man show as the Yellow Nation do what they want. Just imagine, the season is over with four games to go and they are cruising now. I don’t know what other teams are doing and they should take a leaf out of Sundowns’ book. Against Cape Town City, they played well, it’s just that the City goalkeeper was on top of his game. Jali had a great game. Now that the storm is over, this is a challenge to all teams, particularly the so-called big teams, to do something about this dominance of Sundowns. They can’t be dominated by one team for so many years. We salute Sundowns

for being crowned champions once more. Their success and exploits will be registered in the Guinness book of records. MadimetjaVic Mashamaite, Renstown

At the start of the season, Sundowns made their intentions clear by signing quality players, not quantity like other teams. It is high time that the rest follows the best and comes to the party. No other team in the PSL era has won the league title five times in a row. History has been made by Onyango for winning the most league titles. Complacency must not creep in now, there is still a lot of room for improvement. The likes of Erasmus, Safranko and Kekana need to pull up their socks. It’s high time Goss takes over from Onyango, Kapinga grabs the baton from Zwane and Mvala replaces Jali. Those guys have served the team with dignity. The sky is the limit! Gavin Ryan, via email

There is a song with the lyrics “same script, different cast”, and I think that summarises Sundowns’ performance in the Champions League. Or “we

have seen this movie before”, if you like. Will they ever learn, I ask myself. Sundowns must stop celebrating qualifying for the group stage as they have been doing it for years. Let it be a norm in their minds or routine, because I believe that’s where they waste their time and energy. When it matters most, they pull a no-show. They must learn to box smart. Chiefs went all the way to the final and yet Sundowns can’t reach the semifinals – what’s that? If they want to be counted as the best team in Africa, they need trophies. That would make their case strong, so to speak, not by saying we beat so-and-so and yet came back empty-handed. No matter how many times they win against the Club of the Century, if they don’t come back with the cup, it’s pointless. King Msindo, Cape Town

If memory serves, this is the third consecutive season Sundowns have been knocked out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals. Even though it hurts, I urge the KBY family to accept the result and move on. This isn’t the right time to point fingers. In fact, we must collectively share in this pain. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. What I’ve realised, however, is that most of our players are aged and we need to prepare for the future as the likes of Onyango and Mweene won’t be around in the next two years. I suggest we start to throw the likes of Margeman, Mkhuma and February in the deep end and recall Phewa, the GladAfrica Championship leading goalscorer, from his loan spell with Tuks. We were knocked out not because we were incapable but because we were up against a team that did its homework on us. Their technical team really outsmarted ours in both legs. Remember they had nothing to lose even if we were to beat them, due to the ‘underdogs’ tag. Dust yourselves off, KBY, and try again next season. Remember a wise man may try and fail, but he will never fail to try. Tente Mokoka, Sepharane