Sundowns keep marching on
Having scored 10 goals in their opening four DStv Premiership matches, Sundowns again look to be unstoppable as they face a hapless Richard Bay tomorrow, while in Europe the midweek action sees 12 teams vie for the last six Champions League group phase berths – hot action included in TAB soccer pools.
By Mark Gleeson
Mamelodi Sundowns can make it five out of five tomorrow night and again open up a sizeable lead in the DStv Premiership when they take on ailing Richards Bay.
They clash at Umlazi in Durban as Sundowns take on a hectic schedule of early season fixtures to clear some space on their calendar over the next months when they are scheduled to compete in the inaugural African Super League while seeking to book a place in the Champions League group phase.
Sundowns won the league title last season with a 16-point margin over second-placed Orlando Pirates and, after beating Chippa United 2-0 on Saturday, have 12 points from four games - a 100% start with 10 goals scored and just two conceded.
That leaves the Brazilians already five points ahead of SuperSport United and TS Galaxy who are next in the table, having played one game less.
Richards Bay will need to pull off a major shock to stop Sundowns. They last won a game in mid-January before crashing in the second half of the season. They were second in the standings behind Sundowns at the turn of the year and had accumulated 29 points in the first half of the league programme. But then they only picked up four out of a possible 45 points from their next 15 games in a remarkable fall from grace.
Kaitano Tembo has been brought in to try and turn the tide, but after three games of the new term he has seen his side collect only one point and score one goal - which came from the penalty spot.
Tonight and tomorrow also sees the first leg ties in the Champions League playoff. There are 26 clubs automatically through into the group phase and the remaining six places are to be decided via the playoff ties. They are, in effect, the fifth round of knockout preliminaries and sees Belgian champions Royal Antwerp come in, along with the Swiss champions Young Boys Berne, who have a tough tie at Maccabi Haifa in Israel on Wednesday.
Tonight, Antwerp will be hoping to establish a lead to take to Athens for next week’s second leg against AEK Athens.
There is also a rematch between Glasgow Rangers and PSV Eindhoven, who met at this stage last season and saw Rangers win away in the Netherlands to edge the aggregate score and go through to the group phase.