Five talking points from this past weekend’s local football

Kaizer Chiefs we dumped out of the MTN8 by AmaZulu. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Kaizer Chiefs we dumped out of the MTN8 by AmaZulu. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Published Oct 24, 2022

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Durban - The MTN8 weekend's action provided some of the most memorable individual performances in a high profile match, a streak broke and a bowing out of a Soweto giant.

IOL Sports' Smiso Msomi takes a look at the five things we learnt from the weekends football.

Sundowns cloak of invincibility ripped off by Pirates

Orlando Pirates sealed a famous victory over defending MTN8 champions Mamelodi Sundowns, their first over the Brazilians at the in eight games.

Sundowns' dominance over the last ten years had aired a certain level of invincibility as they steam-rolled some of their closest championship contenders on their way to winning four league titles in the last five years.

Monnapule Saleng tore through the Sundowns defence, leaving the Brazilians and Bafana Bafana international Rushine De Reuck on his way to helping Pirates rip off the all conquering Sundowns' cloak of invincibility.

Chiefs eight year drought continues

Amakhosi's failure to beat AmaZulu in the second leg of their MTN8 means their eight year long wait for a trophy continues.

The Naturena based club are in the process of rebuilding their team following numerous years of underachieving and underperforming.

Their shattered ambitions of reaching their first MTN8 final for the first time since 2016 is now evidence of the amount of work required to turn around their fortunes.

Winless Folz helps Usuthu to inaugural MTN8 final

New AmaZulu Head Coach Romain Folz remains winless since his arrival in South Africa but that hasn't hampered Usuthu's qualification into the final of the MTN8 final.

The French Moroccan mentor feels his first victory is only a matter of time now as his AmaZulu side continue to produce decent performances without the requisite results to match.

Jose Riveiro flexes his tactical prowess against some of the best

It is not often that any team on the continent has the pleasure of saying they were able to outsmart and outperform Sundowns.

Jose Riveiro, in his first two meetings with the Chloorkop based club has managed to orchestrate two displays that have kept the Brazilians from scoring while finding the back of the net three times themselves.

The Spanish born mentor has been gradually enforcing his philosophy into the Buccaneers set-up and is now in line to win his first trophy just four months into his new post

Shalulile, the heart and soul of Sundowns

Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi openly admitted that his side missed the expertise of top scorer Peter Shalulile in their loss to Pirates.

The Namibian international Shalulile scored 30 goals in all competitions last season to add onto the 22 he scored the season before that and his recent injury has crippled his hope of adding onto the six he has this season already.

The Brazilians offered little threat in the opposition box and will be counting the days until they will be able to call on the reliable frontman again.

@SmisoScribe