by MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HALFWAY into the season, the race for the inaugural Betway Premiership title bolsters the credence to the adage that a strike-force help teams win games but defenders win league titles.
This emerges in South Africa’s elite football league that again is shaping up to be a two-horse race between the defending champions, Mamelodi Sundowns, and Orlando Pirates.
The pair meets this weekend at Downs’ Loftus Versfeld Stadium this Saturday in what therefore is set to define the destiny of the championship.
While both have been enterprising in attack, the sides’ foundations are built on backlines that are stingy.
Both have conceded only five, with the log leaders Sundowns attaining that in 13 games and Pirates in 12.
The two fortresses again kept clean sheets this past weekend in an eventful past weekend that saw the two teams maintain a gap between them and the chasing perk, some that have played a number of games more.
Pirates needed a stoppage time penalty to beat Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs 1-0 at FNB Stadium on Saturday, and a day later, Downs responded emphatically, whacking the visiting Golden Arrows 4-0 at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe on Sunday.
Evergreen Namibian hotshot, Peter Shalulile, weighed in with two goals, a day after his fellowman, Deon Hotto Kavendji, haunted Chiefs on both flanks at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
Downs top the group on 36 points. Pirates have six points less but have a game in hand.
The defending champions have 28 goals to Pirates’ 25.
– CAJ News