Marked for Kermit Mokoena
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Feb 2035
Every point is an argument now for Black Aces
Position 16 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Kermit Mokoena: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Black Aces have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Feb 2035
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Black Aces and Free State Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khama Mothiba 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 ratings19 Feb 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
Thulani Hlatshwayo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Erick Khune gets it from the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Nov 2034
No clean sheets in sight for Black Aces
36 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match4 Nov 2034
Chastening afternoon for Black Aces
A 0‑3 beating by Free State Stars was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match4 Nov 2034
The wait goes on for Black Aces
6 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khama Mothiba 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Williams Mokotjo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom6 Nov 2034
Nobody left the Black Aces dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Percy Vilakazi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Percy Vilakazi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market6 Nov 2034
Khama Modiba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Black Aces has been clear about where Khama Modiba stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2034
Percy Vilakazi damages knee ligaments — 77 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Match12 Jun 2034
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Kermit Mokoena: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Black Aces have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.