The Sunday Mail
DURING his playing career with Zimbabwe football giants, Dynamos, and the senior national team, the Warriors, Kaitano Tembo was renowned for his no-nonsense defensive qualities.
He was also the defensive hard man for Seven Stars in Cape Town and later SuperSport United, a club he now coaches, and the inclination naturally in his coaching career is that Tembo would put defence first ahead of all else.
Yet the inaugural DStv Premiership has been highly competitive as, halfway through the season, the title race is still wide open and SuperSport United are among the challengers looking to displace Sundowns from the top.
Tembo’s men have amassed 31 points from 16 games having won nine, lost three and drawn four matches but find themselves two points behind leaders Sundowns who are yet to lose a match this season.
The big question is: Are SuperSport United title contenders or just pretenders?
As top coaches will say, strikers win you matches but it is the defence that win you league titles. This applies to Matsantsantsa who are the league’s highest scoring team with 26 goals, two goals clear of Sundowns. However, Tembo’s charges have let in way too many goals for a team that are looking to annex the title, conceding an average of one goal per match.
SuperSport are only two points shy of the log-leaders Sundowns. They are second on the DStv Premiership standings, a position they occupy because of key contributions from players such as Ronwen Williams, Sipho Mbule and Bradley Grobler.
But can they be considered genuine title contenders?
Grobler has been in fine form, scoring half of SuperSport’s 24 goals this season, however, inconsistencies in defence may prove costly in their ambitions. It is only recently that Tembo seems to have finally settled on his defence. After losing the tough-as-teak Clayton Daniels, he has tried out different players to partner with the experienced Bongani Khumalo.
Daniels’ departure is definitely a big blow especially with the number of younger players that the club has for this season. The defender was an important grey head that could balance out the youthful exuberance with some important experience.
However, with Daniels gone, Thatoyaone Ditlhokwe has emerged as a very important player for the club defensively. Statistics are there to prove the importance of the Botswana international as he sits top of the list of interceptions made so far in the league.
Sipho Mbule has been pulling the strings in the middle of the park and also in the top five of players with the most assists so far this season. Interestingly, despite playing in central midfield, he finds himself second on the list of players who have played the most successful crosses behind Sundowns’ Lyle Lakay.
Tebogo Mokoena’s absence has been another problem for SuperSport United and has slowed down Grobler’s scoring streak, however, Lucky Mohomi, who is still finding his feet at the club, is coming good with some important goals in recent games.
To win a league title you need strikers to win you games, Bradley Grobler and Thamsanqa Gabuza are doing that already. Defensively, clean sheets are very important to winning the title because “if you don’t concede, you don’t lose the game” and Ronwen Williams as well as Ditlhokwe have been immense in that regard.
The last important factor is that as title contenders you need to get results against other title contenders. More importantly when the game looks unwinnable, then get a draw and SuperSport have dropped points in matches against other title hopefuls.
Tembo has, however, been in the trenches for a long time now to know the significance of character and his charges no doubt have the capacity to mount a strong challenge on Sundowns’ seeming stranglehold on the championship. – Supersport.com/Sports Reporter.
