A colleague made an audacious, if not profound comment, about Marcelo Allende’s form during a post-match presser with Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena on Saturday evening at Lucas Moripe Stadium.
The journalist suggested that Allende, the mercurial playmaker in Mokwena’s Sundowns team, plays like “he’s really shaken his hand with heaven”.
At first Mokwena didn’t get what the journalist was on about, but he had heard the word “heaven” and Allende in the same sentence. Mokwena wanted to hear everything as he too had been raving about the Chilean a few days before his display that afternoon.
“Sorry,” Mokwena interjected as other colleagues rolled with laughter, “I like heaven. No, no, no, it’s gorgeous. You’ll have to repeat that because it’s a line I’ve got to steal. Like the hands are in heaven?”
Someone in the crowd explained that our colleague had suggested that Allende plays like he’d shaken his hands with heaven.
This was obviously music to Mokwena’s ears, the coach who had said ahead of Sundowns’ quarterfinal clash against Moroka Swallows that Allende deserved at least one Man-of-the-Match accolade in the previous two league matches against Sekhukhune United and Kaizer Chiefs.
“What more must Allende do to get the recognition it deserves,” a perplexed Mokwena had asked before they faced Swallows.
“That is such one good expression, I love it,” Mokwena gushed on hearing exactly what my colleague had expressed after the cup game against Swallows.
Mokwena continued to lavish praise on Allende, adding that the diminutive midfielder who came close to signing for Arsenal in the Premier League before landing at Chloorkop last season “makes others look good”.
Indeed, that’s what Allende does. His latest big contribution being an in-swinging corner kick in a league game against Lamontville Golden Arrows on Tuesday and was headed in by defender Grant Kekana, despite the ball being floated far away from the crowd in the box.
The goal extended Sundowns’ lead to 3-0 before they went on to seal a 4-0 victory, a third successive win in the league, with a second goal from new signing Lesiba Nku.
The horror management of players at Chiefs and Pirates and many other PSL clubs make Sundowns look far better than they are. This is highlighted when ordinary clubs like Cape Town City and Stellenbosch FC look to be the ones to give Sundowns a run for their money.
But with so many players at Sundowns making each other look good, I wonder how long it will take for Mokwena to run out of superlatives for Allende, Themba Zwane, Nku, Neo Maema, Teboho Mokoena, Bathusi Aubaas, Lucas Riberio Costa, Thapelo Maseko and Ronwen Williams.
Most of these players, if not all, make each other look good in a league where already three league matches into the season, appears there will be no peer for Sundowns again.
Every time someone shines a light on a player at Sundowns, it prompts Mokwena to mention a whole lot more of the others, highlighting their impressive contribution to the team that is already sitting pretty at the summit of the DStv Premiership — a title Sundowns are very much likely to win at a canter for a record seventh successive season.
The gap between Sundowns and their pursuers is made so glaringly incomparable by the inconsistencies and struggles of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. These two Soweto giants are the teams everyone expects to be challenging Sundowns.
Three league matches into the season, Pirates, the team that everyone thought had learnt their lesson, finishing 16 points adrift of Sundowns last season, have already dropped five out of nine points — the latest being the lamentable 1-1 draw against Chippa United, a side that is normally run like a spaza shop and coached by an amateur coach.
Look how Sundowns will deal the same Morgan Mammila’s Chippa team at the same Gqeberha venue on Saturday. The difference is how Sundowns study the opposition and how they set up their game.
Sundowns’ game is never about the rush you’ll see at Pirates or Chiefs, where both clubs seem to believe they can kill the opposition with speed and aggression. Both Chiefs and Pirates have drawn with Chippa in the league this season.
Look at how Sundowns strolled to a 4-0 win against Arrows, a team that in my opinion is better than Chippa in how they play.
Mokwena’s team is always about identifying spaces in between those who are trying to close them down. If all avenues to goals are closed, the ball is rolled back to Williams to draw the opposition out of their deep defensive zones — a strategy no other teams apply.
Another of Sundowns’ good traits is profiling ordinary players to fit in their system or schemes, as Mokwena would say. Who would have thought unknowns like Nku and Aubaas would will go on to be instant hits at Sundowns, coming from relegated Marumo Gallants and TS Galaxy? These players are shining because they were identified as players that could fit in with how Sundowns play.
Take the same two players to Pirates or Chiefs and the opposite will happen. They may take months or even the whole season to get their first game and even when they do, you’ll see that they’re still not sure how they’re expected to play. That’s the difference between Sundowns and the rest of the PSL teams.
No wonder you see clubs as big as Pirates signing strikers like Eva Nga, Evidence Makgopa and Souaibou Marou and not use them. Now we hear Marou might be loaned elsewhere or sold outright barely a year after he signed for Bucs with much fanfare from Cameroon. The bottom line is there’s no profiling of these signings, it’s hit or miss all the time.
The horror management of players at Chiefs and Pirates and many other PSL clubs make Sundowns look far better than they are. This is highlighted when ordinary clubs like Cape Town City and Stellenbosch FC look to be the ones to give Sundowns a run for their money.
The ceiling raisers that Mokwena says are among the stars he has at Sundowns are mainly a product of the poor attempts by teams supposed to be challenging Sundowns in the PSL.
Ultimately the poor state of Pirates and Chiefs is not good at all for SA football, as it robs us of a bigger pool of properly groomed players for international football.
The sooner someone gets closer to mastering what Sundowns are doing, the better for our football. For now, it looks like one team is competing with itself, hence some of my colleagues now talk of players who’ve probably shaken their hands with heaven. What a statement.
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