Mamelodi Sundowns will be looking to add Nedbank Cup success on Saturday to their league title and therefore complete ‘the double’ this season – the rare achievement of winning a country's top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same campaign, which is so highly regarded around the footballing world.
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For Sundowns it is a chance to do it for fourth time, and the third in five years, emphasising their domestic dominance.
They romped to a runaway record 23 point advantage over second placed Orlando Pirates in the DStv Premiership and getting the better of the Buccaneers again in the final at the Mbombela Stadium will bring home the double.
Sundowns last did the double when they won the 2022 league title and then edged Marumo Gallants 2-1 after extra time in the Nedbank Cup final at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace.
Their other two double successes came in 1998 and 2020.
Kaizer Chiefs hold the record for the most league and cup doubles in South African football with a total of six, one of the few records that Sundowns have not snatched away from them in recent years.
It a reminder to the club’s trophy-starved followers of a much more successful past.
AmaKhosi’s last double was in 2013 under coach Stuart Baxter.
That success came 21 years after their previous double in a dominant 1992 season where they took three trophies.
AmaKhosi started that season by winning the BP Top Eight Cup, then sacked coach Franky Mbale and replaced him with Jeff Butler but went onto complete a triple with a 2-1 extra time win over Jomo Cosmos in the Bob Save Super Bowl final and edging out Hellenic to the league title. Chiefs could have won a fourth trophy in the 1992 season but lost to Clive Barker’s AmaZulu in a thrilling Coca-Cola Cup final.
Chiefs also had double success in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1984.
Pirates were the first club to do the double in 1973 and then again two years later but had to wait a further three decades to do it again 2011.
Pirates won the 2011 league title in dramatic circumstances when Ajax Cape Town botched their home game against Maritzburg United on the final day of the season and, under Ruud Krol, the Buccaneers were able to complete the double when they came from a goal down at Mbombela Stadium to beat Black Leopards 3-1 in the Nedbank Cup final.
Cape Town Spurs, under coach Mich d’Avray in 1995, are the only other side to achieve the double distinction.
DOUBLE WINNERS
1973 – Orlando Pirates – league and Life Challenge Cup
1975 - Orlando Pirates – league and Life Challenge Cup
1977 – Kaizer Chiefs – league and Benson&Hedges Cup
1979 - Kaizer Chiefs – league and Mainstay Cup
1981 - Kaizer Chiefs – league and Mainstay Cup
1984 - Kaizer Chiefs – league and Mainstay Cup
1992 - Kaizer Chiefs – league and BoB Save Super Bowl
1995 – Cape Town Spurs – league and BoB Save Super Bowl
1998 – Mamelodi Sundowns – league and BoB Save Super Bowl
2011 – Orlando Pirates – league and Nedbank Cup
2013 – Kaizer Chiefs – league and Nedbank Cup
2020 - Mamelodi Sundowns – league and Nedbank Cup
2022 - Mamelodi Sundowns – league and Nedbank Cup
DOUBLE WINNING CUP FINAL RESULTS
1973 – Orlando Pirates beat Zulu Royals 5-2
1975 – Orlando Pirates beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 after extra time
1977 – Kaizer Chiefs beat Orlando Pirates 1-0
1979 - Kaizer Chiefs beat Highlands Park 2-0 in a replay after the first match drawn 3-3 after extra time
1981 - Kaizer Chiefs beat Orlando Pirates 3-1 in a replay after the first match drawn 1-1 after extra time
1984 - Kaizer Chiefs beat Orlando Pirates 1-0
1992 - Kaizer Chiefs beat Jomo Cosmos 2-1 after extra time
1995 - Cape Town Spurs beat Pretoria City 3-2
1998 - Mamelodi Sundowns beat Orlando Pirates 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw after extra time in a replay. The first match was drawn 1-1 after extra time.
2011 - Orlando Pirates beat Black Leopards 3-1
2013 - Kaizer Chiefs beat SuperSport United 1-0
2020 - Mamelodi Sundowns beat Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0
2022 - Mamelodi Sundowns beat Marumo Gallants 2-1 after extra time