Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ronwen Mokoena on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SuperSport United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bradley Hlatshwayo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Minute 94, against Chippa United, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ronwen Mokoena was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the SuperSport United dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khama Jali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SuperSport United heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Itumeleng Dolly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Sédé Dion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Wolverhampton arrived with $23.0M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Rivaldo Khune takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rivaldo Khune provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SuperSport United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Luther Manyama has gone, the accounts have $23.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 SuperSport United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sédé Dion was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $560.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The offer went to Mamelodi Sundowns this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Thamsanqa Zwane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about SuperSport United and Black Aces in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Reyaad Pieterse has, at SuperSport United, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fluminense keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rivaldo Khune and SuperSport United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $170.0K for Joaquín Mendive, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The offer from Ittihad for Lebogang Zungu was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Kaizer Chiefs this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SuperSport United heard it as anything else.
SuperSport United have gone to Tristán Suárez with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Andile Mphela was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alvarado have kept their man, and SuperSport United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sifiso Billiat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khama Dolly and SuperSport United agree another 2 years.