Marked for Itumeleng Mokotjo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
18 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 Oct 2026
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Teboho 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luther Ngcobo 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Luther Dala’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to SuperSport United.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Itumeleng Mokotjo is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. SuperSport United will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Itumeleng Mokotjo at 21 — 8.32
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Itumeleng Mokotjo did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kermit Khune 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 SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Chippa United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.00, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
The goal that put Chippa United ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when SuperSport United equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gift Motupa, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 59. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Jomo Cosmos, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Bradley Lorch could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.68
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.68, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Itumeleng Mokotjo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Sep 2026
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Ngcobo 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 19 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luther Ngcobo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gift Motupa 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Kermit Khune was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Itumeleng Mokotjo is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. SuperSport United will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Match5 Sep 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kermit Furman named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kermit Furman is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
$330.0K. No player has ever cost SuperSport United more, and expectation arrives with him.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.33, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from KCB for Mandla Khune 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
SuperSport United spend $330.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $330.0K for Lwanda Mbanjwa, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Gift Motupa 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 SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Itumeleng Mokotjo 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Jomo Cosmos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Morgan Williams
18 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Ramahlwe Billiat at 21 — 8.04
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ramahlwe Billiat did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kermit Khune 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Ngcobo 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Black Aces, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.