TITLE PRETENDERS EVERYWHERE YOU GO!

My dearest readers ...

“There is no pressure at the top. The pressure’s being second or third.”  If I wanted to have an easy job… I would have stayed at Porto – beautiful blue chair, the Uefa Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me.” Nobody could have put it with such alluring clarity than one of the best managers in contemporary football, the self-anointed ‘Special One’ and master of mind games, Jose Mourinho. He is the king motivator, the master baiter, and he has been, for certain periods of his career, the manifestation of God himself (to Chelsea fans who haven’t seen better, mind you). On regular days, he plays the Devil with more aplomb and poise (and I dare say reliability) than any other public figure that football has seen. I have no doubt he would have said the same with the current MTN league title race which over the past weekend, snowballed into a one-horse canter inspite of 11 games before the curtain falls down on the 2019/2020 season.

As the ‘Special One’ remarked many moons ago, there is no pressure at the top. The pressure is being second or third. Events of the past week in the MTN league proved this beyond reasonable doubt. After long time leaders and needless to say, winners of the First round E350 000 incentive on December 22, 2019, Young Buffaloes recorded their 12th win of the season with a 1-0 win over Manzini Sea Birds, where the talismanic Sandile ‘Saviola’ Gamedze scored his 17th goal of the campaign, nearest challengers Mbabane Swallows had an opportunity to close the seven point gap to at least four points. But alas, the Swallows of Mbabane huffed and puffed in a ho-hum display that only yielded a demoralising 1-all draw against an impressive Denver Sundowns the next day.

Nourishment

It was a performance without bite or tactical nourishment. Sundowns outmanoeuvred Swallows and deserved to have won the game even though the Swallows fans will justifiably point towards the ‘goal’ that never counted – when Sundowns goalkeeper Felizwe Vilakati fetched, with his right hand, a shot by Nhlanhla Ngwenya which had crossed the line by a full yard. First Assistant referee Petros Mbingo should not only be ashamed of himself but a quick visit to an optometrist would save his soul from turning a blind eye to such clear-cut incidences.
In the end, that was the difference between morale-boosting victory that would have kept the pressure on the army side in the title race and a demoralising draw that has relegated Swallows to title pretenders.

Serious

Now, we have Young Buffaloes, serious title challengers – and even champions-elect – and a plethora of title pretenders. Before you accuse this grandson of Mlonyeni of smoking his socks or of having had enough Scottish waters to tranquilise a baby elephant, the league title race is far from over. We still have 11 games to play. Be that as it might be, there are just too many title pretenders in the race this season. Swallows, Moneni Pirates, who flummoxed listless Malanti Chiefs 4-0 on Saturday, Royal Leopard and even faltering defending champions Green Mamba are still mathematically in it. But goodness gracious, they are all TITLE PRETENDERS.

Never mind the fact that all these teams will face each other in the coming weeks but Young Buffaloes, based on their performance and the six-points they currently enjoy on the summit of the log, are oceans apart from the rest. The army side, love or loathe them, are streets ahead. They have won more games (12), scored the most goals (40) – 15 more goals than Swallows – lost only once and have a massive goal difference of 32 goals. That on its own is a point in the bigger scheme of things. When push comes to shove and the league title decided on goal difference, they would still come up tops as they currently have 14 goal advantage over second placed Swallows.

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