Or are other teams catching up?
For the last decade, one team has been able to dominate the Premiership and that team has been Mamelodi Sundowns.
With 12 league titles, they are the team with the most league trophies followed by Kaizer Chiefs and then Orlando Pirates. On Friday the 5 August, 2022 the league started with Downs facing fierce rivals Cape Town City away, and came back to Gauteng with a good 2-0 result over Eric Tinkler’s side.
For their first home game, Masandawana were surprisingly beaten by TS Galaxy 1-0 with the Mpumalanga side taking the spoils.
People started questioning the co-coaches and their choice of players for the starting line-up but, with much faith, fans came out in numbers and the belief that the reigning kings were back and ready to dominate again for their home game against Arthur Zwane’s Kaizer Chiefs – and Downs delivered with a 4-0 hiding.
The Kaizer Chiefs game was interesting because Coach Arthur came to Loftus Stadium to play. He never sat back and hoped to score on a counter or transition play. The Ka Bo Yellow nation sang with much pride and bragging rights having beaten the Soweto Giants.
A week later Masandawana took on Sekhukhune United in an away game and, much to the nation's surprise and consternation, they draw one all. Words like “see-saw” started floating about to describe the inconsistency and the up and down nature of the results and the points. Fans wanted answers and even picketed at the stadium demanding clear answers.
Ups and downs for Masandawana
Many fans and analysts contributed the inconsistency to the almost 40-plus squad members. It beggars belief to have such a strong line up of players and not have a clear starting 11, something the fans say is impossible given quality of players Sundowns has brought in to bolster the squad.
We have seen the return of Bongani Zungu, the signing of SuperSport United players, goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and midfielder Sipho Mule. There’s been an addition with Ethiopian superstar Abubeker Nassir and Uruguayan youngster Marcelo Allende. This team also released 12 players for the new season.
So, could the inconsistency be from the new players not knowing each other or the Mamelodi Sundown’s style of play? Knowing how competitive the club is, one can only speculate that some of the players are brought in to win the elusive CAF champions league title that the Ka Bo Yellow nation so desires.
Is the league still a priority to the club after dominating it for so long?
From what we have seen so far this season it still seems so. The club desires to dominate in every tournament, the league included. After the one-all draw with Sekhukhune United, the team responded the way champions should. This season, the trend seems to be to sit back and not play attacking football when going up against Mamelodi Sundowns – simply park the bus and hope for transitional play.
But it seems the coaches have planned around this.
No team can defend for 90 minutes without losing concentration at some point, hence the last four games which have been won with late goals by the Pretoria side. Masandawana beat Stellenbosch (3-0) at home, followed by Gavin Hunt's charges, SuperSport United (2-1), followed by a tough and last-line defending Chippa United team that put Downs under pressure until they scored in the last few minutes of the game. The trend to score in the last few minutes continued when Downs beat Golden Arrows at home and then played a frustrating and tough tackling game against AmaZulu, also at home, as they came out victorious at 1-0.
Is it cohesion, tactics, or the co-coaching phenomenon?
Could there be trouble in paradise or were the first few games a new team with new players and a new style? Are the three co-coaches drifting apart or is it a matter of other DStv Premiership teams being able to figure out Mamelodi Sundown’s style of play? With three headstrong coaches and a fiery young Rhulani, are the gentlemen seeing the future the same way? Is there a clash of ideas and starting line-ups that compromises consistency? Within the trio, is there equality in idea sharing and planning?
These are some questions to be asked as the season unfolds. This co-coaching system can only be found in South Africa. Is it the way of the future or were the Mamelodi Sundowns management too scared to promote and demote when coach Pitso left?
As a betting nation, we want to see strong teams challenge for national honours and international glory.
The DStv Premiership teams need to come up with various ways to play and figure out Mamelodi Sundowns’ style of play. From trying to play toe-to-toe to parking the bus and hoping for a breakthrough in a counterattack, for the DStv Premiership to be the most watched in Africa, we need teams to be more tactical and compete at the high standard of these reigning champions. They now need to figure out how to beat them even with the quality of players they have.
Football is more interesting when results are unpredictable and sonke we don’t know what could happen. Having one team dominate means other teams are being stagnant or simply not improving. Idiski lethu won’t compete internationally especially Bafana Bafana, the South African national team, if we do not have other strong teams that will take the fight to Mamelodi Sundowns.
We cannot fault the current champions for their dominance but other teams need to observe and learn from them – even if their resources are a bit more limited. We want idiski emonate. iDiski with amavula-vala, ama halagasha and laduuuuuumaas! We want a competitive league and not ama-obvious “Sundowns is going to take it."
DStv Premiership teams, players, coaches – this is a call to be more hard-working, more in tune with the times, and more aligned with modern football and its new ways.
Because Mamelodi Sundowns certainly are.