As the Castle Premiership enters the home straight with the last 13 games left in the season to be played, the test of strength in depth and consistency by the 16 clubs in the league begins in earnest.
The next three months will produce the title chasers, champions, super-eight finishers and relegation candidates.
Soccer supporters will be kept on the edge of their seats as the season nears an end, with the Absa cup tournament coming up soon to ruffle feathers. Clubs fighting against relegation may lose sight of the bigger picture as they fight for the R1-million on offer, while those clubs in contention for the championship trophy will also have to stay focused.
The championship race looks like a tight contest between Santos, Ajax Cape Town, Kaizer Chiefs, Moroka Swallows and Orlando Pirates, who are the defending champions.
But other teams cannot be excluded because any of the top five teams can drop points, thereby giving way to new challengers.
Clubs such as Chiefs, Ajax, Sundowns and Wits, who all have some catching up to do with games in hand, must not think it will be easy to amass the three points they need in each of their remaining games — it is harder to play catch-up than it is when you already have the points. Teams such as Santos, who are at the helm of the Premiership table, and Pirates, who are third, cannot afford to lose points as they could find themselves falling off the list of championship challengers.
Supersport United were the first to to take the lead when they beat Santos 4-0 early in January and continued this run with a 3-0 win over Zulu Royals, before being brought down to earth by Swallows, with a 4-1 drubbing.
The next clubs to follow suit were Jomo Cosmos and Swallows, before Pirates upped the stakes by thrashing Dynamos 5-0 after they had received their new sponsorship from Admiral.
This weekend sees Swallows take on the wounded Dynamos in Giyani stadium on Saturday, while Supersport United will be hoping to put their humiliating defeat (1-4) by Swallows behind them when they face Golden Arrows.
On Sunday Silver Stars, who are number eight on the log table, take on Pirates, who are riding a winning streak in their task of defending the championship crown they took away from Santos, whom they beat 2-0 on Wednesday.
Hellenic’s woes continued on Wednesday night when they were beaten 2-1 by Black Leopards. Hellenic will host Wits University on Sunday at the Pam Brink stadium in Springs.
Hellenic are in a bid to stave off relegation — they lie at the bottom of the league table with only seven points from 18 games, which they accumulated from one win, four draws and 13 losses.
While the clubs eye the Premiership trophy, players such as Pirates star Benedict Vilakazi and Jacky Ledwaba of Zulu Royals are chasing the Golden Boot Award. They have so far amassed nine goals each, but even there things are not guaranteed. Goals may have been scarce in the first round of the season but since the second round began there have been plenty.