A 1‑0 win over Orlando Pirates, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cassius Mailula will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around University of Pretoria the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Luvoyo Phewa 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.
7 goals in one match, Shaun Els on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of University of Pretoria and Black Aces.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. University of Pretoria will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luvoyo Phewa 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.” Vusi Sibiya and University of Pretoria agree another 2 years.
Cassius Mailula 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luvoyo Phewa 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A whole season of being the finest 21-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. University of Pretoria have him, and everybody else now knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cassius Mailula 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dasok Nanribet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.