Cape Town — Mamelodi Sundowns are unquestionably the most successful South African football club in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) era, and they again confirmed their dominance by winning a sixth consecutive DStv Premiership title by a country mile.
Sundowns reinforced their domestic dominance by claiming their latest Premiership title after playing only 23 of 30 matches this season. This is a record for the earliest a team has won a league title in the PSL era.
Despite two defeats, they were utterly dominant in the league and set many records along the way.
This unprecedented sixth title is now one of 13 overall they have won since 1998. No other club have recorded a league-winning spell of more than four titles and Sundowns look set to be unstoppable next season again.
They enjoyed a spell of 15 wins in a row, and then they finished with the best goal difference (+39) in a league they won the league by 16 points. They also won the league by the same margin last season, and this remains a record in a 16-team league.
Towards the end of the season, when Sundowns had to juggle Premiership games with CAF Champions League assignments, the technical staff opted to keep the best players fresh for the continental competition.
As a result, several untried combinations were roped in for domestic duty and the team, uncharacteristically, ran up three draws in their last five Premiership games. This ended their chances of improving their record of 23 wins in a 30-game season. They finished the season with 21 wins.
One of the driving forces behind Sundowns' flow of victories was Namibian international Peter Shalulile. The ace goalmouth predator, one of the Premiership's most lethal strikers, joined the PSL's 100-goal club this season.
The last two goals in this milestone achievement were however scored in a Champions League match when he scored a brace in Sundowns' win over Algeria's CR Belouizdad to reach the mark.
This season Shalulile battled with numerous injuries which caused him to miss many matches. However, he did enough to claim a share of this season's Golden Boot award with Cape Town City's Khanyisa Mayo as they both finished with 12 league goals.
IOL Sport