That second goal was insane! And the passing that set up the OG on the third was Barca-esque. Great stuff out of Mamelodi Sundowns! I think that it's a good thing for the PSL that it's not Pirates or Chiefs. Mamelodi Sundowns has been a top club in SA for years, yet their support has never come close to those two clubs. As an admittedly outside observer, they and Bloemfontein Celtic seem to represent the second-tier of support in SA which is far, far below those two. Hopefully, should they do this, they can bring aboard more interest in clubs outside of Soweto. I love their club song btw, Ka Bo Yellow.... such a lovely jam!! Please start singing this at matches Mamelodi supporters!!! Ka Bo Yellow, ah yay ya! Ka Bo Yellow, ah yay ya! Ka Bo Yellow, ah yay ya! Ka Bo Yellow, ah yay ya! Ka Bo Yellow Masandawana... So I am definitely pulling for Mamelodi Sundowns. I'm even feeling more positive about them possibly winning that I would have been had Enyimba made a run since there's so much immediate potential for this club. Enyimba and the Nigerian league have so much that they need to do to even equal DRC's top clubs. South Africa has been successful in attracting top professionals from across Southern Africa just as Northern African clubs have attracted top available footballers (those not in Europe) from across North Africa, the Middle East, and West Africa (part of why West African clubs struggle to since they lose many of their best non European-based players to them). And DRC gets the rest (Central Africans, West Africans). The talent-gab between Southern Africa and West/North Africa has been most of the difference despite the ability of the PSL to compete financially. However I've felt that this is not necessarily a problem. Should the PSL remain true to it's investment in Southern African football, then it follows that if the PSL becomes more competitive in CAF CL competitions, then that should coincide with an up-tick in the fate of the Bafana Bafana, since it will be South Africans making the bulk of the improvement at the club level. Sure enough South Africa has already started WC qualifying on a positive note with an away draw against a tough West African opponent.
Great input. I am glad that there are more people beside me, yacine and zahzah. I'd really love to see Nigerian club battling for the title, I'd love to see your league to start going up. Potential is massive, it's a huge country with huge population, it always had good and entertaining players and it has to have top3 league and always have a continental title contender. Yet, investments and results are like it is Zimbabwe or Benin, pretty poor. That's shame. I hope TP Mazembe's and Mamelodi's success can give some rich Nigerians motivation to start investing into their own leagues rather than in Arsenal. Also, I recently looked at Nigerian league table, away team stats are horrible. It's like Bosnian league after the war when teams went away and they knew they lost before entering the bus.
Enyimba didn't do half bad this year, but I get your point. The lack of a proper local league will always pull down the national team, because you are entirely reliant on foreign leagues to develop you talent. Unlike for example Brasil where you can play till your 21-23 and it doesn't hamper your career.
Hey guys I've been lurking for a while now but I think it's time for me to join in. I'm a Kaizer Chiefs fan from South Africa but i can say that without a doubt Sundowns are the top team on the continent easily and will probably beat zamalek on Sunday or at the very least draw with them. Egyptian teams aren't that strong anymore or rather SA teams are just stronger these days. I was sad with the way chiefs performed in this seasons champions league as we should have beaten ASEC but at the time chiefs were in a huge patch of bad form. Nigerian football needs a lot of investment to match the other leagues but the talent is there. For now SA will probably dominate the continental club scene for the next 5 years as our teams have started taking the continental tournaments a lot more seriously in the past 5 years and that has resulted in 3 continental finals in the last 4 years... it's long overdue
http://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/news/y=2016/m=10/news=sundowns-wary-of-cairo-test-2845161.html is titled "Sundowns wary of Cairo test."
Sadly, it used to be even worse before those results became known worldwide last season showing most teams in the league without a single away win. The league was forced to do cleanup on officiating and crowd intimidation tactics. It's still not perfect and it won't be until the league is more profitable with more investment and development. This also hurts the development of coaches. Since you don't have a profitable league you also don't have as many foreigners who bring different looks and styles which enrich the experience factor. The competition is also inconsistent and rarely are able to bring their best effort to away games due to lack of funding for transportation and lodging for away trips. It isn't the best place to develop as a coach. There was a time when Nigeria's league was much more competitive and popular domestically. I really wish Dangote wasn't so focused on Arsenal bc he could be a real leader to drive investment in the league. It's not even necessary league-wide, just with the teams in the big metro areas and teams with alot of history. 4 or 5 teams could carry the league upward, it just requires some forward thinking and big pockets. Sadly, none of Nigeria's wealthy leaders are interested. I wonder if when Eko Atlantic finally gets built, if South Energyx or some other similar conglomerate might not just buy the entire first division from the League Management Company and run it like a real business that wants to grow. That could be a good for the league to go fully private.
I still think that CAF need to up their game also. The Champions league needs to up its prize money a lot more! Maybe 5 or 6 million dollars as right now winning the SA premier league is almost on par with winning the Champions league. I'm glad that the rules hve changed and next season the group stage will be from the last 16 allowing more top clubs to showcase themselves for longer spells in the tournament. It's going to be more common to see TP Mazembe vs Sundowns, Al Ahly vs Esperance , Al Hilal vs Zamalek, AS Vita vs Kaizer Chiefs etc... Lastly CAF really need to work on broadcasting all group stage matches in as many countries as possible rather than only the match that concerns the club from a respective country. In this way the competition will increase in importance amongst the African populous.
1-0 FT, 1-3 aggregate. Mamelodi Sundowns have won their first ever continental title! Congratulations to "Brazilians", their fans, whole South Africa, fully deserved title. I really hope they do well at the CWC. Can't wait for 16-team group stage to kick off. Four long months without streams and regular video-material checking.
Sundowns!!! They did it for the country. It's a party back here in SA! Never had any doubt. Now for the Club World Cup.
This is actually a good squad by any standard. One of Africa's best GKs, Liberia's best player, two up and coming stars in Kekana and Dolly. Plus a very good coach. I could se them doing well at the CWC.
So after years pretending South Africa doesn't care about the CAF Champions League... it turns out they do after all?
Nah we really didn't care for the most part. Up until about 5 years ago when Pirates started taking it seriously and reached the final in 2013 did the Champions league regain its importance. Proof of this was Kaizer Chiefs pulling out of participating in CAF tournaments and SA teams sending 3rd string teams to play these tournaments.. however recently that has all changed as our mentality is changing too.
You're quite knowledgeable about SA football I must say Just to correct you Kekana has been playing for years now. He is in the latter stages of his career. It's sad though that many of these Sundowns players don't play for the SA national team. Only Dolly, Kekana, Langerman are regular features ... the rest of the national team is from Chiefs, Pirates and the rest shared amongst smaller teams and overseas based players.
Kekana is up and coming that he is the backbone of the South African national side and make sthe team play differently. BTW I'll use your presence here: Where is all of South Africa's young talent? You have a squad that is 26+ and save for Coetzee, Patosi and Dolly it really lacks freshness... (Why doesn't the SA coach call up Percy Tau, I think he's better than Modiba) And where are your strikers? The frontline is just so not on the required level...
The younger players tend to only start being called up at 25 years old for some reason and generally no earlier than that. SA coaches are more concerned with results than building as the job of SA coach is a fickle one Percy tau isn't good enough for a call up to be honest. Modiba is a much better player. Tau was playing in the 2nd tier just a few months ago, he has a lot to learn. We have players like Menzi Masuku (Chippa) Leboghang Phiri (Brondby In Norway), Mobara (Pirates), Mahlambi (Bidvest Wits),Nooredien (Pirates), Gordinho (Chiefs), Lebo Mothiba (Lille in France) ... They used to play for the u23s however since the olympics are over they should be called up in the near future
That's what I don't get. Other countries see that their national team is playing below expectations they invest time and focus on revamping the squad with youth. South Africa has never had this approach... Good thing about Coetzee though, but this guy is a phenomenal talent. If he were Brasilian, he would be as hyped as Marquinhos.
Years backs SAFA with the backing of Transnet establish a school dedicated for football but due to lack of vision and many other reason the school ended up being what it is at the moment, irrelevant. The idea was that the school will be one of the main feeders to South Africa's national teams and for a while this idea looked promising. This project managed to produce the likes of Steven Pienaar, Bernard Parker, Ninja Mofokeng, Daine Klate, and Bryce Moon amongst others. The crop of players that came out of this school combined with other youngsters from different teams managed to form one of the best under 23 team South Africa ever had. That is the team that beat Brasil 4-1 during Sydney Olympics. During those years SAFA had high profile tournaments for junior teams, the under 23 had own sponsor in the form of SASOL, and some players were even scouted by European teams. For example that famous under 23 was taken for almost three months to training camps in Europe and the US to ensure that they grow as a team, and the results could be seen. Unfortunately the association lost focus and even the PSL did nothing to try to bring this sort of thinking back despite getting millions of money for the league. With exception of Ajax and to an extent FS Stars (main feeder for Pirates, Sundowns, and Chiefs), and to lesser extent Wits most of the teams use recycled old players who failed at some point in their career. Unfortunately this has a big impact as the pool for Bafana Bafana is smaller. When you combine this with reluctance of South African players to go to Europe and the current coach who has issues with European players the situation gets worse. Imo the team should be build around the likes of Mokotjo, Patosi, Jali, Coetzee, Mahlambi, Furman, Dolly, Erasmus, Matlaba, and Khune, etc.
http://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/ne...y-for-the-land-of-the-rising-sun-2846342.html is titled "Sundowns lift South Africa into global spotlight."
Lots of news coverage of this event. It really looks like South Africa has taken to CAF Champions League news. No shortage of coverage from many networks there.