Marked for Samukelo Ngodela
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jul 2028
Rodney Maphangule damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Lebohang Nkaki out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Puleng Marema
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Polokwane City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Feb 2028
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match19 Feb 2028
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match19 Feb 2028
SuperSport United held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Polokwane City answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Kgaogelo Ramushu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A mark of 5.33 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Dec 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Polokwane City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Polokwane City may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.18, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Dec 2027
Bloemfontein Celtic left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market20 Dec 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rodney Maphangule signs something — a contract at Polokwane City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Veli Mothwa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at University of Pretoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Samukelo Ngodela is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Luvoyo Phewa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match7 Aug 2027
Mamelodi Sundowns left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market9 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Evidence Vilakazi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market9 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sifiso Williams has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at University of Pretoria has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at University of Pretoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Veli Mothwa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Abel Mabaso
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.