Mamelodi Sundowns were made to work for their 1-0 win against Orlando Pirates at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday, but what can’t be disputed this season is that they’ve comprehensively conquered both Soweto giants this season.
Having beaten Kaizer Chiefs 4-0 and Pirates 2-0 at home last year, successive 1-0 wins this year secured them a rare league double against both giants.
RECAP | PSL – Orlando Pirates v Mamelodi Sundowns
That they’ve done so without conceding a goal is a mark of their enduring quality, something that’s seen them win 15 consecutive league matches this season.
The win, their 18th of the season, took them to 55 points and brought them ever closer to another league title.
Pirates’ seventh defeat of the season left them in fourth place with 28 points, further away from breaking a league drought that’s spanned more than a decade.
The game was again afflicted by sub-standard parking and traffic management, with cars queuing up the adjacent street.
While there was a seating arrangement inside that did its best to separate the crowds, it also put Sundowns firmly in its place as the visiting team because they were sandwiched into the South-Western Corner of the ground.
A lack of security inside the ground also saw the media tribune being flooded by fans, a scenario that nearly transpired when the sides met at this ground in the MTN8 first leg semi-final, but a strong and no-nonsense police contingent kept the crowds at bay on that day.
It didn’t showcase the best of South Africa’s football organisation, but the capacity crowd provided a constantly unnerving cacophony that would, on other days, create mental delirium for visitors.
Sundowns, though, are accustomed to such hostility and they displayed it from the onset.
With the coordinated chaos around them, the visitors showed their pedigree by scoring off the very first chance of the game in the fifth minute.
After a high press that caught the hosts in possession deep in their own half, a quick interplay between Neo Maema and Themba Zwane found Cassius Mailula in space.
The young striker slammed the ball past Pirates keeper Sipho Chaine, with his goal stunning the majority Pirates crowd into silence.
Pirates, who struggled to find any coherence for the better part of the first half, had the better goalscoring chances.
Monnapule Saleng, who terrorised Sundowns in both MTN8 semi-final fixtures, forced an error from the Sundowns defence that allowed Ronwen Williams to make his first save in the 10th minute.
Deon Hotto (18th minute), Kermit Erasmus (22nd minute) and Goodman Mosele (26th minute) all had semi-decent chances, but it was Hotto’s one that pretended to sting Williams’ gloves.
Pirates played with a better sense of purpose and direction in the second half and for the first 10-15 minutes of the stanza, they asked all the pressing questions.
In the 52nd minute, centreback Thapelo Xoki’s header went narrowly wide of Williams’ net, while two minutes later, Saleng blasted one into the side-netting.
It was on the hour mark where Pirates should have equalised, but Vincent Pule’s shot hit the upright while Bandile Shandu’s follow-up chance was well saved by Williams.
It was a moment that deflated the Ghost but also allowed Sundowns to snap out of their somnolence.
Sundowns’ latent casual nature cost them two chances to bury the game after Pirates ceded the momentum.
Zwane was wasteful in the 63rd minute after Sundowns again caught Pirates on the high press as they tried to play out of their half.
Five minutes later, Sundowns also missed a chance to close out the game when Mailula’s tame shot was saved by Chaine, with Pirates again caught with possession deep in their half.
The game returned to a tactical scrap, but Sundowns tried to break the game open with a second goal.
They failed with both attempts in the 81st minute through Mothobi Mvala, whose shot went narrowly wide, while Mailula failed to bury the ball past a desperate Chaine.
Pirates had the better of the final exchanges of the game, with territory and possession being in their favour.
It all amounted to nothing, for when referee Masixole Bambiso blew the final whistle, Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena, who had a rough spell as Pirates coach, let off a roar that pierced the Soweto sky.
Sundowns’ ‘Yellow Wall’ sung from the pits of their stomachs, drowning out the applause Pirates were getting from their desperate fans.