The 29th PSL season kicked off this past weekend, with half the league in action across Saturday and Sunday. Kaizer Chiefs, Polokwane City & Richards Bay were the three winners, with the former two guranteed joint-top for at least 72 hours. We shared some stats over the weekend; but here are the details on some and more.
1. On Nabi’s first win
What we shared:
2012 - Nasreddine Nabi is the first Kaizer Chiefs coach to win his first league game at the club since Stuart Baxter in 2012 (excl. Caretakers).
What we didn’t share:
Needless to say, Baxter went on to win the title in his first season.
Between Nabi & Baxter, there were five permanent coaches who made their coaching ‘debut’ for the club: Steve Komphela (Drew in his first league game) Giovanni Solinas (L), Gavin Hunt (L), Arthur Zwane (L) and Molefi Ntseki (D).
2. On Chiefs youthfulness
What we shared: Nothing (took a while to figure this out)
What we would have shared:
26 - Kaizer Chiefs' starting XI this past weekend had an average age of 26 years & 102 days; the youngest by the club on MatchDay 1 of a PSL season since 2010/11 (25y 73d).
Youngest starting XI for Chiefs on the opening day of the season:
2009/10: 24 years 322 days
1999/00: 25 years 28 days
2010/11: 25 years 73 days
2007/08: 26 years 1 days
2024/25: 26 years 102 days*
3. On Chiefs’ youngsters
What we shared:
5 - Only four players (Knowledge Musona, Collins Mbesuma, Kabamba Musasa & Jabu Pule) scored more league goals before turning 21 for Chiefs than Mdu Shabalala (5).
What we didn’t share:
Of the four players above Shabalala, Musona is the leader with 20 goals before his 21st birthday, Mbesuma had 15, with Kabamba Musasa (8) and Jabu Pule (7) just behind.
Here’s the rest of the Top10 scorers before the age of 21 (Chiefs PSL era only).
Essau Kanyenda of Malawi (26 goals) holds the record overall.
4. On Brandon Truter breaking a hoodoo
What happened: Richards Bay 1-0 TS Galaxy
What we can share:
1 – This was Brandon Truter’s first-ever win against TS Galaxy, coming in his eighth attempt (P7 W0 D4 L3 previously). Phew.
Neither Swallows, AmaZulu, nor Sekhukhune could help him break his winless streak against TS Galaxy—until this weekend with Richards Bay. At the eighth time of asking, and with a fourth different club.
He’s yet to beat Sundowns & Golden Arrows, whom (as the fixture gods would have it) he will face in back-to-back games in December.
5. On Comeback wins
What happened: Chiefs & Polokwane both came from a goal down to win their games.
What we can share:
Q1: Is it the first time two teams make a comeback on the same day?
Answer 1. NO!. There have been 54 previous instances in PSL history (Boring!)
Q2: Is it the first time this (two teams making a comeback) happens on Matchday 1
Answer 2: YES! (11 previous MD1 comebacks, but all in different seasons).
Q3: Has it ever happened that three teams comeback to win on the same day?
Answer 3: We’re being ambitious now …. but the short answer is YES! (it’s happened four times - once each in 1997 & 2013 and then twice in 2021).
What are we working on this month?
Early season stats. Let’s see if there’s a team that doesn’t change their Starting XI for, say, 3 or 5 games from the start of a season.
Appearances for the rest of the league.
