Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
Kutlwano Letlhaku and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Minute 89, against Platinum Stars, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at SuperSport United, and it is not being withdrawn.
SuperSport United asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samkelo Dlamuka has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SuperSport United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SuperSport United can pretend not to have heard.
9 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
SuperSport United ran out of time with Free State Stars. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bradley Mokotjo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kutlwano Letlhaku is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SuperSport United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Siyabonga Dala decided nobody was going anywhere. Bloemfontein Celtic had no time left to answer.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Maritzburg United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
SuperSport United offered $3.3M; Black Aces said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. SuperSport United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Everything agreed with Golden Arrows, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns have settled on $1.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The phone has started ringing about Bradley Mokotjo again, and this time the name on the line is Racing Genk. SuperSport United are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax Cape Town have kept their man, and SuperSport United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $133.5K — a club that wants Thato Sibiya enough to be asked twice.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bradley Mokotjo and SuperSport United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
SuperSport United have gone to Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
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.