Three Chiefs players who could halt Sundowns’ invincible season

Mamelodi Sundowns will lift a seventh consecutive DStv Premiership title, that is not even up for debate, as they prepare to take on Kaizer Chiefs on Thursday at FNB Stadium.

Masandawana could even seal the deal without kicking another ball, if Stellenbosch lose at home to Golden Arrows on Wednesday evening. Even if Stellenbosch win that game, a Sundowns win over Amakhosi will be enough, but really there is no need for permutations, the game is up for the rest of the league.

What remains for Sundowns, apart from attempting to secure the Nedbank Cup, with a semifinal to come against Stellenbosch on Sunday, is to finish the Premiership season without losing a match, putting a cherry on top of the cake of their total dominance of the domestic game by finishing off an ‘invincible’ campaign.

Chiefs are the latest side to attempt to knock back the efforts of Rulani Mokwena’s team, who have not lost a league game since Mokwena took over as solo head coach in October 2022. That absurd statistic is highly unlikely to change on Thursday, given Sundowns’ imperious form domestically, as well as Chiefs’ current woes, even if they are coming off the back of just a second win of 2024, a 2-1 victory over SuperSport United on Saturday.

Here, however, Phakaaathi takes a look at three Chiefs players who might just make a difference at FNB Stadium on Thursday.

Ashley Du Preez

Ashley Du Preez? The former Swallows striker who has made a habit of wasting glorious opportunities all season? He is really going to make a difference against Sundowns? Ok, but hear me out. Du Preez has given the impression at times this campaign of a man who would battle to find the proverbial cow’s behind with a banjo.

And yet, this year when he did show up it was in the Soweto derby against Orlando Pirates, with two brilliantly taken goals.

If Du Preez can rise to the occasion again here, he might just be the man to stun Sundowns. He has previous against Masandawana too, bagging a brace in May 2022 as Stellenbosch stunned Sundowns 3-0 in a DStv Premiership match. Du Preez also scored against Sundowns for Stellenbosch in a 3-2 Nedbank Cup defeat in February 2021 and for Chiefs against Sundowns in this season’s MTN8 semifinal 2-1 loss in September.

Mduduzi Shabalala

Shabalala has battled to put up consistent performances for Chiefs since breaking into the first team last season, but the 20 year old attacking midfielder still has plenty of time to make himself an Amakhosi legend.

In interviews last week, it was notable how maturely he discussed Chiefs’ predicament, an old head on young shoulders, if you will. And he backed up his criticism of his own performances with a superbly-taken winner against SuperSport United on Saturday. If Shabalala can show similar composure in front of goal on Thursday, he might just be the man to throw a spanner in the well-oiled Sundowns machine.

Bruce Bvuma

Amid all of Chiefs’ struggles this season, Bruce Bvuma has been a real good news story for Amakhosi, emerging from a long career playing second fiddle in the goalkeeping department, to make the Chiefs number one spot his own.

After being picked by Cavin Johnson as his first choice in November, Bvuma went on a run of eight clean sheets in ten matches, keeping Chiefs in matches while their strikers battled at the other end of the pitch. Those clean sheets have dried up of late, but that is more down to Chiefs defensive lapses than anything Bvuma has done.

With Sundowns likely to pile on the pressure on Thursday, a good performance from Bvuma will be key to any success Chiefs hope to garner.