A full round of ABSA Premiership fixtures will be played this weekend. First up is a Chippa United, Golden Arrows clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth on Friday evening from 8pm. The pick of the weekend matches will be the top of the table clash between log leaders, Bidvest Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns, at the Bidvest stadium at 6pm on Saturday.
It promises to be a mouth-watering encounter. Only two points separate the second placed Sundowns from the log leaders. The Clever Boys have 37 points from 20 matches while the Brazilians have 35 in 18 encounters. With an average of 10 rounds of matches still to be played this season, it is probably too early to call it a title decider. However, there is no denying that both sides will be pushing for the honours come the end of the season.
Sundowns needed a win on Tuesday to go on top of the standings but Polokwane City had none of it. Denis Onyango’s own goal cancelled out Themba Zwane’s opener and the match finished 1-1, much to Pitso Mosimane’s frustration.
“Well, you can’t be happy with a point at home, to be honest. You can’t be unhappy with the boys, they tired. Maybe the goalkeeper is the man of the match, I suppose and it tells you the story. So many balls saved on the line. We did our best but sometimes you got to accept a point, what can you do? Take a point and move on, It’s not yet decided, it’s okay,” says Mosimane.
Before the Wits-Sundowns match, two matches would have been played already on Saturday afternoon. At 3:30pm, Cape Town City will be at home to Maritzburg United, while Kaizer Chiefs will be away to Polokwane City at the Peter Mokaba stadium.
At 8:15 pm on Saturday, 3rd placed Orlando Pirates, who lost 1-0 to Supersport United on Wednesday in Mbombela, will take on AmaZulu at the Orlando stadium
At the same time, Amatsatsantsa, who are fourth on the log, will be entertaining Baroka at the Lucas ‘Masterpieces’ Moripe stadium in Atteridgeville.
“In football it’s not what you deserve but it’s what you get. So many mistakes committed, it looks like pressure has entered inside us. Unfortunately we conceded from that set-piece but we tried our best, creating chances. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result we wanted but performance we believe we have been up to standard,” says Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic.
“This is us. We fight. We hard to kill sometimes, we make teams work for their victory. We had lost that little bit because we had few injuries. That kind of disrupted us and had to bring in youngsters and it was a little bit difficult for them to cope and sometimes youngsters need to be carried as well,” says Supersport coach Kaitano Tembo.
On Sunday afternoon, Bloemfontein Celtic will lock horns with Free State Stars in a Free State derby.
While ABSA Premiership returnees, Black Leopards and Highlands Park, will clash at Thohoyandou stadium in Venda.
