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The year in football in South Africa

tennis03 December 2024 15:20| © Mzansi Football
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Magesi team celebrating © Gallo Images

South Africa’s national team produced their best result in continental competition in more than two decades when they finished third at the Africa Cup of Nations finals to highlight an exciting 12 months for football in the country.

Along with the dominance of Mamelodi Sundowns in the league, cup success for Orlando Pirates and the fairytale trophy for Magesi, Bafana dominated the headlines for 2024.

It is rare that Bafana posted the best performance of the year but their impressive run to the semifinal of the Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast caught the public imagination and won back a place in South African hearts for the national team.

Their feat in West Africa was dominated by the penalty shootout heroics of goalkeeper Ronwen Williams but also outstanding performances from the likes of Tebeho Mokoena and Themba Zwane.

Having wasted several years insisting on using only young players, South Africa coach Hugo Broos belatedly realised his best chance came from a backbone of Sundowns players, already well versed in the rigours of continental competition.

It was with 10 Sundowns regulars in his squad that South Africa advanced through the group stage, overcoming several hurdles to finish with the bronze medals.

The campaign started poorly with defeat by Mali in Korhogo but the team recovered with a 4-0 thumping of Namibia with Zwane scoring twice and finished second in Group E after a draw with Tunisia.

Paired with hot favourites Morocco in the last-16, Bafana were not given much hope but held out until just before the hour mark through Evidence Makgopa scored and after Morocco missed a penalty, Mokoena converted a brilliant freekick.

The quarterfinal win over the Cape Verde Islands was somewhat fortuitous but Williams came up trumps with four saves and Bafana should have beaten Nigeria in the semifinal, spurning some good chances, before being eliminated on spot kicks.

Williams was again a hero in the third place playoff as Bafana edged the Democratic Republic of Congo in Abidjan to make it to the podium.

The performance of the Bafana keeper won him a nomination among the world’s 10 best goalkeepers at the France Football Ballon d’Or award in Paris where Williams traveled to join with all the other stars of world football.

South Africa finished top of Group K in the qualifiers for the next Cup of Nations finals in Morocco in a campaign that was competed in three months.

After needing a last gasp equaliser to avoid home defeat to Uganda, Bafana won home and away over South Sudan, took four points off Congo including a 5-0 thrashing n Gqeberha and won impressively away in Kampala.

In the process, the team stretched their unbeaten run to a record 19 games.

SUNDOWNS DOMINANT

Meanwhile at club level, Sundowns won a record-extending seventh league title, and 17th overall, and were so utterly dominant that the championship was wrapped up with six games to go, the second season in a row they have managed that feat, which is a South African record.

They came within 30 minutes of being the first side to ever finish a league season unbeaten but lost their last game of the campaign at home to Cape Town City.

But the records tumbled as Sundowns proved utterly dominant, breaking the record for most league points in a 30-game season by finishing with 73, plus the biggest title winning margin which was 23 points ahead of second placed Pirates.

They also set a new mark for best goal-difference at the end of the 2023/24 season with +41 while equaling Chiefs’ record for the most away wins (11) and least goals conceded (also 11).

Sundowns goalkeeper Denis Onyango has now claimed 11 league titles in South Africa, a record that will take some beating but the club did fire coach Rulani Mokwena after they missed out on the Nedbank Cup, plus exited the African Champions League at the semifinal stage with home and away losses to Esperance of Tunisia.

Their hopes of doing the league and cup double were ended in dramatic fashion in the final at the Mbombela Stadium where teenager Relebogile Mofokeng showed individual genius to score a dramatic stoppage time winner to see Pirates retain the trophy.

Pirates also stole into second spot in the league after Stellenbosch, who were well on course to finish runners-up, let slip their chance in the last stages of the campaign.

But the Winelands club did qualify for African club competition for the first time and have since advance to the group stages of the Confederation Cup.

Newly promoted Polokwane City finished an impressive eighth place in their first season back in the top flight, but were on the receiving end when Iqraam Rayners scored all five goals in their loss at Stellenbosch – equaling the record for the most goals scored by a player in a league game in the Premier Soccer League era.

MEMORABLE MOMENT FOR MAGESI

Magesi were the side who won promotion as winners of Motsepe Foundation Championship, replacing bottom-placed Cape Town Spurs, and within 10 games of moving up to the top flight, scored a memorable victory in the Carling Knockout final in November.

Rarely has a cup decider been seen as lobsided and Magesi were underwhelming underdogs yet came from behind at halftime to record a stunning 2-1 victory in Bloemfontein.

It was one of the great cup final upsets in the long history of professional football in the country.

Pirates won the MTN8 in October with a controversial 3-1 win over Stellenbosch in Durban.

It was the first time a club had won the top eight trophy three times in a row and emphasised the Buccaneers’ new standing as cup kings.

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