Cape Town – Mamelodi Sundowns, the all-conquering DStv Premiership machine, continued to rack up records on their relentless march through the 2021/22 season with an away 4-0 win over Marumo Gallants at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday evening.
It is no longer a highlight that Sundowns have kept their unbeaten record intact this season because this feat has been overshadowed by a slew of Premier records which were added to the many already set in the past few months.
The result of the match ensured that Sundowns have now played 22 away league games without conceding defeat. This milestone passed the one they held jointly at 21 away games with Kaizer Chiefs, who set that record between January and December 2005.
Last week, Sundowns set the record for clean sheets with 11 in succession. After this match, their record improves to 12. Bidvest Wits initially set the mark in 2003 with 10 successive clean sheets.
Moments before midfielder Themba Zwane opened the scoring in the game, Sundowns set a record for playing 1000 minutes (almost 17 hours) of Premiership football without conceding a goal. The previous mark stood at around 900 minutes.
Zwane's 24th-minute goal came at the end of a move sprung deep inside Sundowns' half. Ten passes later the ball reached striker Peter Shalulile who teed up Zwane just outside the penalty area. Zwane unleashed a piledriver that curled away from Gallants goalkeeper Washington Arubi and into the roof of the net.
Gallants found it increasingly difficult to take play outside of their half because of Sundowns' high press.
Sundowns should have 2-0 ahead on the half-hour mark after Neo Maema struck the upright after he ran onto a goalmouth cross from Slovakian Pavol Šafranko who had raced down the left flank with gay abandon. Šafranko left two defenders in his slipstream by the time he reached the opposition penalty box.]
Sundowns dominated the start of the second half, but despite multiple scoring chances, they were unable to crack the Gallants defence.
Around the hour mark, Gallants suddenly gained the ascendency and had two chances to score, including a free-kick on the fringe of Sundowns' penalty area. The set-piece effort was shot wastefully high over the bar.
Eleven minutes from the end, the unmarked Shalulile stalked up among four defenders to steer a goalmouth cross past Arubi for the second goal.
Šafranko added a third goal to finally condemn Gallants to another defeat and still rock bottom of the standings.
In the final minute, Shalulile added a fourth goal and now heads the PSL leading goalscorers' list with eight goals.
IOL Sport