Many PSL records appear to be coming under attack this season
● It’s just two games before most Premier Soccer League teams reach the halfway mark in their league campaigns in the 201920 campaign yet there are encouraging signs that long-standing records may well tumble this season.
One that has stood the test of time is nine goals scored in a league match, recorded 15 years ago. In five league matches this season, this record has looked more and more threatened.
It all started in three matches in September, starting with a 3-all stalemate between SuperSport United and Cape Town City, followed by Bidvest Wits’ 4-3 win over Orlando Pirates in Durban and ended with a 3-3 draw between Bucs and City.
City were to be involved again in one of the two highest scoring matches when they beat Polokwane City 5-3 in Cape Town early in November. In this match Polokwane striker Charlton Mashumba scored the first hattrick this season.
Mashumba’s record was not to last beyond a month, though, as Kaizer Chiefs’ inform striker Samir Nurkovic also scored three goals when his team beat Bloemfontein Celtic 5-3 in Durban last week.
Those three goals also saw the Serbianborn Nurkovic join Knox Mutizwa of Golden Arrows and Peter Shalulile of Highlands Park on the PSL’s top scorers chart.
What won’t be pleasing to Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki about the scorers list is that no SA player is featuring, with Kermit Erasmus of City and Bongi Ntuli of AmaZulu FC a goal behind the trio.
Astonishingly, Ntuli’s seven goals are all that AmaZulu have scored this season and it’s no surprise Usuthu are just one point above basement dwellers Stellenbosch after 14 matches.
With Chiefs on an eight-match winning streak in the league, they are still three matches shy of Mamelodi Sundowns’ 11match run in the league set by Gordon Igesund’s
team in 2006/07.
With three league matches coming against Maritzburg United (December 22), SuperSport United (January 4) and Highands Park (January 8), it might be difficult to bet on Amakhosi breaking this record.
In the 17 league matches remaining Chiefs need 26 points to add to the 34 they have to clinch their fifth PSL league title. But 70 points will still be one fewer than the 71 Sundowns hold as the highest winning total in 30 league matches.
Polokwane City are setting a record of their own with their eight-match consecutive run of losses this season and it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to arrest the tide soon with new coach Clinton Larsen.
Polokwane are away to defending champions Sundowns on Saturday and their gloom doesn’t look like it’s about to end.
Orlando Pirates new coach Josep Zinnbauer has the biggest task of ending Bucs’ inconsistency in the league. Pirates are yet to record two successive wins this season, puzzling for a team which finished second to Sundowns in the past two seasons.
Organising the defence which has shipped 20 goals against the 19 they’ve scored in 13 league matches, will be the priority for Zinnbauer if he is to quickly get any admirers at Bucs.
Despite owning the longest winless run this season with 10 matches, Chippa are slowly but surely recovering after winning three of their last four matches, scoring six goals without conceding to move to 11th spot under new Zimbabwean coach Norman Mapeza.
Bradley Galane of Cape Town City is leading with five assists to the 19 goals his club has scored this season, followed by Lebogang Manyama of Chiefs and Menzi Masuku of Celtic with four.
Like Zinnbauer at Pirates, City’s new coach Jan Olde Riekerink has the huge task of reorganising his defence which has conceded the highest (21) number of goals in the league in 14 matches.