Mamelodi Sundowns’ season has still got a full month to run as they compete in the African Champions League final over two legs against Pyramids of Egypt and then go on to the Club World Cup in the United States.
But they have already completed an astonishing 51 games this season across all competitions, winning the Betway Premiership, reaching the Champions League final, finishing runners-up in the Carling Knockout and getting into the semifinals of both the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup.
They have had many key games across the season, but these were arguably the five most important:
SUNDOWNS 2 SUPERSPORT UNITED 0 (17 September, Loftus Versfeld)
Turmoil in the boot room marked the start of the season with the abrupt departure of Rulani Mokwena and the return to the helm of the club of Manqoba Mngqithi. He had previously been co-coach with Mokwena but then demoted, and that meant he would be under added scrutiny.
Successive losses to Stellenbosch in the MTN8 semifinal were an immediate setback for the new coach, so he needed a positive start to the league campaign, which began belatedly a month behind schedule.
A 2-0 win over SuperSport United, with second-half goals for new signings Iqraam Rayners and Brazilian Lucas Ribeiro, was the start to the defence of their league crown that Sundowns needed.
KAIZER CHIEFS 0 SUNDOWNS 4 (2 November, Soccer City)
Sundowns had beaten Chiefs 2-1 in a league match in late September and handed them another defeat, this time in far more emphatic style, in the Carling Knockout quarterfinal.
The Brazilians were on top from the beginning of the one-sided contest as Rayners opened the scoring with a 14th-minute penalty after Ribeiro was fouled, and six minutes later added a second for a comfortable lead.
Peter Shalulile further extended the advantage before halftime and the final goal came from Khuliso Mudau just after the hour mark.
It was also made easier after Chiefs' centre-back Inacio Miguel was dismissed, but what the performance, and the result, achieved was to remind Chiefs, hopeful of a revival under a new coach, that Sundowns were still very much the club in command.
STELLENBOSCH 0 SUNDOWNS 1 (18 December, Cape Town Stadium)
New coach Miguel Cardoso started with two Champions League group matches, but while the results against Moroccan opponents Royal Armed Forces and Raja Casablanca saw four points gained at the start of their group campaign, they were a gritty performance and he needed a more imposing start to his first league game in charge to win over players and fans alike.
This came just before Christmas in Cape Town as they overcame stubborn Stellenbosch 1-0. Rayners scored the only goal against his old club in what Cardoso described as a very difficult match, coming 72 hours after they had edged Raja.
SUNDOWNS 4 ORLANDO PIRATES 1 (8 February, Loftus Versfeld)
Pirates were lurking behind Sundowns in second place and hoping that by winning some catch-up games they could move right up onto the Brazilians’ tail.
Victory in Pretoria would shake up the title race, but any hopes Pirates had of putting the cat among the pigeons quickly dissipated at Loftus as Grant Kekana put Sundowns ahead as early as the 13th minute as he finished unmarked at the back post.
Then Ribeiro ran more than half the length of the field to score a second and make it 2-0 at halftime. Deon Hotto pulled one back, but Pirates’ hopes were dashed within two minutes as Ribeiro drilled in front long range, and Tebeho Mokoena added the fourth 12 minutes from time.
AL AHLY 1 SUNDOWNS 1 (25 April, Cairo International Stadium)
Sundowns had earned a reputation over the past nine years, since they last appeared in the Champions League final in 2016, of crashing out in the knockout stages of the continent’s top club competition after strong showings in the group phase.
It looked as if it would happen all over again as they went behind to the holders in Cairo in the second leg of the semifinal, but a fluke goal in the last minute, as the ball came off the heel of veteran feeder Yasser Ibrahim, handed Sundowns the slice of luck they had been missing for years, and they advanced to the final on the away goals rule after a 1-1 aggregate draw.