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10 REASONS WHY WE LOVE MTN LEAGUE

16/12/2021 08:32:00 BY LWAZI DLAMINI

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The MTN league 2021/2022 season will reach its first quarter-mark this weekend with ‘Week Seven’, but already it has proven to be nothing short of drama, excitement and controversial moments.

Already title pretenders are being separated from title challengers; middling mid-table teams are drifting to their normal positions while usual suspects found themselves swimming in the relegation murky waters even before the season gets into its halfway mark. You can say it’s still early days, but they don’t say make hay while the sun shines for nothing. Our Sports Editor lists the ten reasons why we love the 2021/2022 season to bits already.

RECORD NUMBER OF GOALS SCORED - 110

The new MTN league season is already breaking more records than plates. A massive 110 goals have been scored which shows a 28-goal improvement from last season’s goal tally at the same stage (82 goals had been scored at this stage last season). We already have had three penalties awarded and converted and two own goals by Rangers FC’s Majaha Msibi against Highlanders on November 20 at Mavuso Sports Centre and Denver Sundowns captain Makhosi Mtsetfwa against Vovovo FC last Saturday. Highlanders have scored the highest number of goals – 16 and have also recorded the highest win – the 5-0 massacre of rookies Rangers FC on November 20 at Mavuso Sports Centre. It’s been raining goals in the elite league this season.

MILLING HOTSPURS SOCIAL DISTANCING WITH GOALS, WINS

Believe it or not, Milling Hot Spurs are yet to score a GOAL this season in the six games played. The Manzini-based side social distancing with goals would leave even the World Health Organisation (WHO) and FIFA combined, dumbfounded. This means the team under Zenzele ‘Ace’ Dlamini has failed to locate the back of the net in 540 minutes of play. Moreover they are also one of the three sides (Tambuti FC and Malanti Chiefs being the other) who have not won a game this season. Theirs is a sad story after the heights they scaled last season, even finishing at a credible seventh position on the league having collected an impressive 37 points. The big question remains; who will score the first goal for the basement dwellers this season?

LOYAL HIGHLANDERS FANS TURNING UP IN NUMBERS

With the limited return of the vaccinated soccer fans, the numbers have not been impressive to say the least. But one team has had impressive numbers in their games – Mbabane Highlanders. The Highlanders loyalists have turned up in good numbers in all venues and last Saturday, at Mavuso Sports Centre, they were over 500 of them dressed in black and white regalia. Since 1952, Highlanders fans have proven to be a loyal bunch.

CALLIES, VOVOVO FC ARE LEAGUE’S SURPRISE PACKAGES

Tambankulu Callies and Vovovo FC are punching above their weight in the ‘big boys’ league. The two sides placed third and fourth respectively on the log standings separated by a point are above big sides like Mbabane Swallows, Manzini Wanderers, Young Buffaloes, Denver Sundowns and Moneni Pirates. That says it all. Vovovo FC, who are on a three-match winning streak, are one of the three sides yet to lose a game this season. Log leaders, Royal Leopard and second placed Mbabane Highlanders are the other two teams who have not lost a game so far. No doubt, Callies and Vovovo FC are the surprise package of the league.

LEOPARD ON THE PRAWL AGAIN

At the same stage as last season, Royal Leopard find themselves looking down upon the rest of the teams from the lofty pole position on the log standings. It is familiar territory for the defending league champions whose 77 points tally haul was historic on its own last season. On 16 points in six games, ‘Ingwe Mabalabala’ has only dropped two points in a goalless draw with Manzini Wanderers on Tuesday, December 7 at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium. They look the part and once again, talented midfielder, Sifiso ‘Junior’ Magagula, bizarrely overlooked for the ‘Player of the Season’ award last season, has been outstanding with four goals in six games already. For both ‘Junior’ Magagula and Leopard, it is true that, form is temporary, class is permanent.

SUNDOWNS LOVE AFFAIR WITH ZIM/FOREIGN COACHES CONTINUES

From the halcyon days of Wonder ‘Number 1’ Moreira, Sundowns’ love affair with foreign coaches is well-documented. Rodwell Dhlakama, Terasayi Changara, Solly Luvhengo, Manfred Chabinga, Christopher Ennin, are some of the names that have gone through the conveyor belt at ‘Basop IKappa Kappa’ and now Zimbabwean mentor, Bigboy Mawiwi is the latest acquisition. Last season, the coaching revolving door at Sundowns, which saw an overturn of five coaches, was in full swing. Mawiwi already has won one game and lost another. It remains to be seen if he can last the whole season because the club chairman Mark Carmichael’s fingers are as itchy as South Africa’s Chippa United boss Chippa Mpengesi when it comes to coaches and poor results.

NAIL-BITING RACE FOR THE ‘GOLDEN BOOT’ AWARD

If the battle for the top honours is intensifying, another side-show is taking centre-stage on the race for the ‘Golden Boot’ award. As many as eleven players are in the mix with Mbabane Highlanders quicksilver striker Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa leading the race with seven goals inspite failing to score in the last two games. He is closely followed by Manzini Sea Birds striker Muzi Tsabedze, who netted the equaliser a minute before full-time against Highlanders in last Saturday’s 1-all draw. Just like last season where Buffaloes lanky forward Phiwa Dlamini scored a record 23 goals, it looks increasingly certain we will see another striker notching more than 20 goals again this season.

‘SIKHALI’ DESERVED WINNER OF 1st PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Since he joined on October 20, 2020, he is to Mbabane Highlanders what salt is to food; what water is to fish and what oxygen is to an astronaut. His 19-goal haul last season was almost half of the 41 goals ‘Inkunzemnyama’ scored as a team and this season alone, he has scored seven goals in six goals. He has the same number of goals as his former team, Mbabane Swallows and more goals than the bottom NINE teams on the log. Small wonder he was a deserved recipient of the first ‘Player of the Month’ award for November. He is a joy to watch. When he is on form, he is unplayable.

MALANTI CHIEFS IN ANOTHER PROLONGED DANCE WITH DEMOTION

We have seen this movie before! Season after season, Malanti Chiefs dices with ‘death’ in the form of relegation. Last season, the Pigg’s Peak side failed to win the first seven games, beating Manzini Wanderers 2-1 on ‘Week 8’ on April 21 at Mhlume Stadium for their first win. This season, the scene is replaying itself already. Five losses and one draw in the opening six games is Malanti Chiefs ‘normal’ record. But the difference this season is that unlike in the past, four teams will be relegated and at the rate the league games are going, the 28 points they attained last season will not be good enough to save them from the jaws of relegation this time. This season, the stakes are high.

TALISMAN FELIX BADENHORST BACK WITH A BANG

Amiable Mbabane Swallows lanky forward Felix ‘Fela’ Badenhorst has returned to the ‘Birds’ nest at a time when the club made its worst start to a season since the 1999-2000 season. He is now at the centre of the ‘Birds’ revival with a three-goal contribution including the 75th minute winner against Milling Hot spurs at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium last Saturday. ‘Fela’ has scored in three consecutive games.