Call it an amazing coincidence or something worth a disbelieving mention in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
But with glamour teams Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs kept apart and drawn to play Free State clubs Free State Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic in Telkom Knockout semifinals in 10 days, finding the match-ups reversed and Sundowns playing Celtic and Chiefs up against Free State Stars in Premier Soccer League (PSL) games on Wednesday night is undoubtedly a mathematical phenomenon.
And while the powers that be are already savouring a crowd-pulling potential Sundowns-Chiefs Telkom Knockout final, the reality of Wednesday’s games is that Celtic and Stars are the teams comfortably perched in second and third position on the PSL log, while defending champions Sundowns and Amakhosi are wallowing in the lower regions in 13th and 10th place respectively.
So, apart from being a revealing pointer as to what to expect in the Telkom Knockout semifinals, the games at the Free State Rugby Stadium and Olympia Park are also important in many ways for their significance in the PSL race.
Chiefs, in spite of closely fought penalty shoot-out victories in the Telkom Knockout against Moroka Swallows and SuperSport United, have managed only two draws and three defeats from their last five PSL games — and, in the best Believe it or Not tradition, managed only one goal in 450 minutes of football.
Sundowns have not set the world alight either in their pursuit of a third successive PSL championship and one victory from five games is not something to make them swell their chests with pride.
Celtic, in addition, are awfully difficult to beat in Bloemfontein and the Brazilians will need to be at their best to start an urgent PSL revival. — Sapa