Evidence Mabunda 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.
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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sifiso Modiba was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Free State Stars dressing room was either.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Kermit Modiba 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.
“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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Bongani Khune
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Black Aces defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. University of Pretoria will replay every second of the added time for a week.
8 matches without a win, and then this, against University of Pretoria. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.87, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Sifiso Kekana 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.
A 2‑1 win over University of Pretoria, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 22 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.
“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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sifiso Modiba kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
8 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$690.0K on the table at SuperSport United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$43.0K was the most the club would pay and Chippa United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Free State Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erick Mabunda. 2‑0 against Kaizer Chiefs, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kermit Modiba 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Isheanesu Mauchi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Free State Stars needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sifiso Modiba after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Harold Majadibodu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Solly Khunyedi signs something — a contract at Free State Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Free State Stars have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Everybody at Free State Stars saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sifiso Modiba after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kermit Modiba 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Sifiso Kekana 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Sifiso Kekana was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.68. 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.
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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Kermit Modiba 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ronwen Williams trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sifiso Modiba kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kermit Modiba 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Free State Stars can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Free State Stars will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Solly Khunyedi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Mamelodi Sundowns, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sifiso Modiba was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Free State Stars dressing room was either.
In brief
SquadKermit Modiba falls out with a teammate over standards
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Kermit Modiba 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Robert Luthuli is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A 1‑1 draw with Bidvest Wits leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sifiso Modiba chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Sifiso Kekana’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Free State Stars.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Sifiso Kekana was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Morgan Khune and Free State Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Bidvest Wits go through and Free State Stars go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Free State Stars is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Free State Stars ran out of time with Polokwane City. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.