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HIGH-SCORERS FC!

07/12/2021 08:36:00 Lwazi Dlamini Pandora's Box

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My dearest readers ...

Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital. Aaron Levenstein’s overused quote nicely encapsulate the enthralling MTN league 2021/2022 season which is slowly separating boys from men; title challengers and title pretenders; middling mid-table teams from relegation fighters. It’s barely five games played but already some teams look the part while others remain as soft as a marshmallow on the bottom rung of the log standings.

Let me unravel the mystery using the glaring statistics on the face value as I best know how. Four teams are yet to win a game this season and they are all at the bottom of the log – Tinyosi FC, Tambuti FC, Malanti Chiefs and Milling Hot Spurs. Believe it or not, Milling Hot Spurs under the management of the youngest team director in the premier league, Sabelo Mavimbela are yet to score a goal this season. Malanti Chiefs, who survived relegation by a whisker last season, have only scored two goals while shipping in nine. Two teams, Mbabane Highlanders, the new log leaders and defending champions, Royal Leopard, have won four games with the latter having a game in hand and face Manzini Wanderers at the iconic King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium this afternoon.

punching

Three teams have won three games and these are namely third-place Denver Sundowns, Tabankulu Callies who are punching above their weight this season and Green Mamba. Six teams have won two games and these are namely, Vovovo FC, Manzini Wanderers (who have a game in hand), Mbabane Swallows, Moneni Pirates and rookies, Rangers FC.

Just like life itself, there is already a growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots. Boys are being separated from men, so very early in the season. It makes for riveting reading. It makes it more enthralling for the neutrals. With its twists and turns; reviews and reversal, the MTN league 2021/2022 season will certainly keep all of us on the edges of our seats.

Unlike the tail-end of last season when Royal Leopard bolted from the stable, galloping away with the MTN league crown, this season it looks like we could have as many as four-horse race. Yes, already others are huffing and puffing with no hope in hell in catching up with the title challengers but it is still early days. Probably the best story to come out of the league so far this season is that of the country’s football aristocrats, Mbabane Highlanders. Love or loathe them, the ‘Black Bull’ has been crisp, prim and proper.

They have turned many doubters into believers with a brand of heavy metal of a pressing game, verve and vitality which left a star-studded Green Mamba traumatised at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium on Saturday. It was the sort of castigation meted on naughty schoolboys by head-teachers in the olden days when corporal punishment was not abolished. Aesthetically-pleasing in the eye, the passing carousel – as former Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson once described FC Barcelona’s passing game – and the swift, high intensity attacking verve tore Green Mamba’s defence to shreds.

Not surprising the ‘Black Bull’ is having a prolonged pre-Christmas party at the rooftop of the MTN log standings. The statistics are scary. Twelve goals in 270 minutes of play; four wins out of five; one draw, no loss and only five goals conceded while 15 have been scored. The statistics do not even tell half the incredible story of the ‘Bull’ swashbuckling attacking verve where they have missed as many chances as they have scored.

They have traces of the dominant Highlanders of old, the rip-roaring Highlanders of Tholeni ‘Schuster’ Nkambule, of Henry ‘Puma’ Kunene, of Phumuza ‘Elkatib’ Ntshangase, of Innocent ‘Ten Ten’ Ginindza, of Mzwandile ‘Tito’ Mabuza, of Charles ‘Mnumzane’ Masango, of Diffuse Lukhele, of Lucky ‘Masomalenhle’ Dlamini. Yes, they might not be the same as that all-conquering Highlanders of old but the signs this season are encouraging that if consistency becomes their staple diet, the 21 years wait for the league crown could be over.

At the centre of optimism which has descended in the ‘Black Bull’ kraal, leading to some of the club fans calling for the ‘Big Derby’ already, is the man who shone brightly in the colours of the traditional rivals, Swallows in marksman Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa. He might not have added to his seven-goal tally on Saturday but his two-goal assists; his off-the-ball runs ad unselfishness showed his maturity.

Like an obstinate shylock, Green Mamba defender, Mcolisi Manana followed him everywhere he went but still his excellent reading of the game created enough spaces to make huge assists to two-goal hero Tony ‘Ben 10’ Machacha, who was in his element on the day. Swashbuckling and buzzing around, Highlanders foreign contingent of ‘Ben 10’, Kenneth Moloto and Lindokuhle ‘Smally’ Fakude were a marvel to watch.

It is always good when the country’s ‘Big Three’ teams, Highlanders, Swallows – who beat Sea Birds 2-1 on Saturday and Manzini Wanderers are on the ascendancy. Royal Leopard could return to the summit of the log standings today if they beat their hoodoo team Manzini Wanderers – who denied them the first round E350 000 ‘carrot’ last season – but there is no doubt, a bulldozing Highlanders, a rejuvenated Swallows, a sleek Denver Sundowns, a slithering Green Mamba, a stout Tabankulu Callies, an unpredictable Manzini Wanderers and a hard-nut-to-crack Vovovo FC – who are one of the three undefeated teams this season with Highlanders and Leopard – we are in for an enthralling 2021/2022 MTN league season. Long may the excitement, guile, grit on display so far this season, continue. As that party anthem by Amapiano hitmakers, DJ Maphorisa and Kabza De Small goes ‘ASIBE HAPPY’ ...