Mamelodi Sundowns entrenched their dominance of the domestic game in 2022, again breaking records in the Premier Soccer League as the continued to build a dynasty that looks like it could continue to rule the roost for years to come.
The Brazilians completed another runaway league triumph and added the Nedbank Cup for a complete sweep of the 2021-22 season.
And they continued where they left off, opening up a five-point lead after 12 games of the 2022-23 season, looking again like they will romp to the championship.
Ironically, however, it will be seen as an unsatisfactory year for Sundowns because of their failure in the African Champions League – by their own agenda for 2022 rather than the view from outside.
They were odds-on favourite to win the continent’s top club prize after setting a new standard in the group phase by taking 16 out of a possible 18 points, including both home and away victories over the fabled Al Ahly of Egypt, under the management of Pitso Mosimane.
That point haul never been achieved before since the Champions League format was introduced in 1997 and set up Sundowns as the team to beat.
But they then blew it in the quarterfinals by losing on aggregate to Angola’s Petro Atletico and being ignominiously tumbled out of the competition.
There was also upheaval at the club in October after a 3-0 defeat by Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 when the coaching duo of Rhulani Mokwena and Manqoba Mngqithi was broken up and Mokoena appointed sole coach with Mngqithi effectively demoted.
But taking the 12 months in totality it was a domestic triumph for Sundowns, who made it an unprecedented five league titles in a row and took their total number of championships to 15, which is now three more than Kaizer Chiefs, whose 12 league titles since the formation of the National Professional Soccer League in 1971 was the previous record.
They added the Nedbank Cup to it as well by beating Marumo gallants in the May final.
Sundowns’ 16-point winning margin in the league was the biggest in PSL history, beating the 14 points they won the title by in the 2015-16 campaign.
Plus, their 56 goals scored was a record for a 30-game PSL season, beating the 55 both they and Kaizer Chiefs had previously managed.
Their +36 goal-difference is a PSL record, beating the +35 they managed in the 2015-16 campaign.
Sundowns’ ace marksman Peter Shalulile scored an impressive 23 goals in the league, two short of the 30-game PSL record of Collins Mbesuma, and took the Golden Boot award. Not a single one of Shalulile’s goals were from the spot.
The Namibian goal poacher won both the 2021/22 PSL Footballer of the Season and DStv Premiership Player’s Player of the Season awards for a second successive season.
Cape Town City, whose goalkeeper Hugo Marques kept the most clean sheets of any gloveman with 15 in his 28 appearances it, rallied in the new year to finish second for their highest-ever position although Pirates might well have ended up runners-up as they had catch-up games but blew it, allowing new club Royal AM to finish third.
Pirates, to be fair, were distracted by a run to the African Confederation Cup final, where they lost on post match penalties to Renaissance Berkane in Uyo, Nigeria. The match ended 1-1 and it was the third time in a decade Pirates had lost in an African club competition final.
But, under their new Spanish coach Jose Riveiro, they did take the MTN8 in November with Monnapule Saleng’s win handing them the trophy of the year as they beat AmaZulu in the final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.