Marked for Thulani Mahlangu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Mamelodi Sundowns did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Thulani Mahlangu out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mamelodi Sundowns will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match2 Jan 2027
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mamelodi Sundowns have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Themba Zwane, 37, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ronwen Williams 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lwandiso Radebe is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Dec 2026
13 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Dec 2026
47 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match26 Dec 2026
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mamelodi Sundowns may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Zeke Felix is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market28 Dec 2026
Nuno Santos wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mamelodi Sundowns hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Marcelo Allende at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Mamelodi Sundowns.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Thulani Mahlangu out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mamelodi Sundowns will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Dec 2026
12 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Themba Zwane, 37, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Khuliso Mudau 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Themba Zwane. 4‑3 against Jomo Cosmos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match19 Dec 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mamelodi Sundowns and Jomo Cosmos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Mamelodi Sundowns training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Allende 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.