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JOHANNESBURG. — Mamelodi Sundowns will today be looking to add Nedbank Cup success to their league title and therefore complete ‘the double’ this season — the rare achievement of winning a country’s top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same campaign, which is so highly regarded around the footballing world.
For Sundowns it is a chance to do it for fourth time, and the third in five years, emphasising their domestic dominance.
They romped to a runaway record 23-point advantage over second placed Orlando Pirates in the DStv Premiership and getting the better of the Buccaneers again in the final at the Mbombela Stadium will bring home the double.
Sundowns last did the double when they won the 2022 league title and then edged Marumo Gallants 2-1 after extra time in the Nedbank Cup final at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace.
Their other two double successes came in 1998 and 2020.
Kaizer Chiefs hold the record for the most league and cup doubles in South African football with a total of six, one of the few records that Sundowns have not snatched away from them in recent years.
It a reminder to the club’s trophy-starved followers of a much more successful past.
AmaKhosi’s last double was in 2013 under coach Stuart Baxter.
That success came 21 years after their previous double in a dominant 1992 season where they took three trophies.
AmaKhosi started that season by winning the BP Top Eight Cup, then sacked coach Franky Mbale and replaced him with Jeff Butler but went onto complete a triple with a 2-1 extra time win over Jomo Cosmos in the Bob Save Super Bowl final and edging out Hellenic to the league title. Chiefs could have won a fourth trophy in the 1992 season but lost to Clive Barker’s AmaZulu in a thrilling Coca-Cola Cup final.
Chiefs also had double success in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1984.
Pirates were the first club to do the double in 1973 and then again two years later but had to wait a further three decades to do it again 2011.
Pirates won the 2011 league title in dramatic circumstances when Ajax Cape Town botched their home game against Maritzburg United on the final day of the season and, under Ruud Krol, the Buccaneers were able to complete the double when they came from a goal down at Mbombela Stadium to beat Black Leopards 3-1 in the Nedbank Cup final.
Cape Town Spurs, under coach Mich d’Avray in 1995, are the only other side to achieve the double distinction.
Meanwhile, Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena says he finally got his wish to squeeze in more training sessions ahead of the final.
The Brazilians wrapped up their DStv Premiership campaign last weekend following a 1-0 defeat to Cape Town City.
And, with no midweek commitments, Mokwena believes they have had adequate preparation to take on Orlando Pirates in Mbombela today.
“I was very excited that we had some training time — I haven’t had training time with these players [in a long while], and I enjoyed the last two training sessions, the quality, intensity, and energy,” said Mokwena.
“We trained like a team that just lost football match [in the final DStv Premiership fixture against Cape Town City], and I was very happy with the reaction.”
Sundowns have been involved in six competitions this season, including two on the continent.
Mokwena revealed that he is usually limited to 10 minutes during training.
“My training sessions this year have been 10 minutes [long], and I’ve had a stopwatch, but it’s a countdown – it counts down from 10 minutes and beeps immediately at the end of 10 minutes, and I was not allowed to go further than that,” he detailed. – SuperSport.
Online Reporter