Sundowns flex muscle in potential make-or-break week in sprint finish with Pirates

Mamelodi Sundowns are the past masters at closing Betway Premiership titles — apart from their record-breaking eight in succession, they have won a staggering 10 of the last 12, making for more than a decade of supreme domination.

That makes Downs opening a five-point gap with Sunday’s 3-0 victory against Polokwane City at Loftus Versfeld, albeit having played a game more, over chasers Orlando Pirates appear ominous.

Pirates have mounted the bravest challenge to the Brazilians’ hegemony of the past five years. Some late season jitters have seen both the Brazilians (64 points from 27 games) and Buccaneers (59 from 26) lose their footing in recent weeks.

Sundowns had successive draws against Stellenbosch FC and Richards Bay before bouncing back with two wins against Polokwane — they beat City 1-0 away last week. Pirates’ slip-ups, drawing three of their last six games, may have been that margin more costly.

While the Premiership completes with its final two rounds on the weekends of May 16 and 23 where, as per tradition, all the teams play simultaneously, this year Downs will not be among those to give them time to prepare for the two legs of the Caf Champions League final against Morocco’s AS FAR on May 15 (home) and 24 (away).

Sundowns’ league season will be over next Tuesday, when they play their final game against TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium. The Brazilians would hope to have wrapped up the title by then, or in that game, to avoid a nervous one-and-a-half-week wait for Pirates to complete their programme.

If they win their remaining three games Sundowns would go to an unassailable 72 points. The Buccaneers will be going all out to beat tough Stellenbosch FC at Athlone Stadium on Tuesday night (7.30pm), both to keep the pressure on and prevent themselves all but conceding the chase.

Pirates will then have all eyes on Downs’ big clash against Kaizer Chiefs at Loftus on Wednesday (7.30pm), a fixture where Amakhosi have been known to trouble the Brazilians regardless of form. Chiefs need a win to bolster their battle to entrench themselves in third place after their seven-match unbeaten run was undone by Siwelele FC in Bloemfontein this weekend (2-0).

Sundowns’ other remaining game is at home against Siwelele on Saturday.

“It’s a big, beautiful challenge ahead because it’s basically a week-and-a-half and everything will be finished. And we need to be very strong in the way we approach every match, like we’ve been trying to be,” Downs’ coach Miguel Cardoso said after Sunday’s win.

“Match by match, day by day, managing contexts and trying to ensure performance as much as possible.”

Sundowns, by their standards, were erratic in the opening half of the season, where Pirates’ determined challenge along with apparent internal issues at Chloorkop had the Premiership’s mega-wealthy super-club appearing somewhat rattled.

They have been back to their metronomic winning selves in 2026. They are on an 18-match unbeaten run in the league, 14 of those victories, including a 10-game winning spell before last month’s successive draws.

Before Sunday the goals dried up for three games — just two scored. Cardoso was pleased to see better fluency against Polokwane.

“Look, you see how teams play narrow [against Downs],” he said. “It’s not easy to score goals when teams sit so low and especially when you play away where the pitches have the grass so long, they are not really properly watered [to let the ball run], so the conditions for the quality of the game are reduced. And that is consistent in our away matches.

“Today our grass [at Loftus] was quite high, but we watered it, which was intentional because you needed to protect the pitch, which had been quite destroyed.

“There are moments in the season where teams try to close us so much that we need to focus on [getting] the results. And I think we have been quite consistent. Unfortunately, there were two draws but there was also a long series of good matches.

I think we produced a good match away [at Seshego Stadium last week]. Considering the conditions we had to play in, the dimensions of the pitch, we controlled the match very well

—  Miguel Cardoso

“And we now need to look ahead — there’s another one on Wednesday and another one on the weekend, so we have to be consistent and continue to win so we can continue to score points and then in the last match, probably, of the championship, see what is going to happen.”

Having to earn back-to-back wins against the same team can be tricky and Polokwane are a handy side. Cardoso was impressed with how Downs saw off the Premiership’s sixth-placed team, who had gone four games unbeaten, away and home.

“I think we produced a good match away [at Seshego Stadium last week]. Considering the conditions we had to play in, the dimensions of the pitch, we controlled the match very well.

“We moved one or two players in terms of positioning [for the second game] to especially avoid some of the man-marking, because there was a lot of that, as you could understand from the interview of the coach [City’s Phuti Mohafe].

“I think we were quite OK. We produced a lot of mobility, had possibilities to take the ball from one side to the other, avoiding some of the more crowded areas. I was happy with the game.”

This week — especially Pirates’ and Sundowns’ midweek games — could be make or break in the league title race. Downs seem to have the upper hand as things stand, but such has been this fascinating, nail-biting contest of swinging fortunes that Pirates will keep hope alive. There will be many Bucs fans out to support greatest rivals Chiefs at Loftus on Wednesday night.