From Relebohile Mofokeng’s quickfire brace to the historical difficulties of coming from 2-0 down. Plus Gabadinho Mhango’s silent rise up the goalscoring charts and Cape Town City and Kaizer Chiefs’ ongoing struggles, here are five stats from the PSL weekend, in detail…
On Rele Mofokeng’s quickfire brace
5” - Relebohile Mofokeng’s two goals within the opening five minutes represent the earliest league brace by an Orlando Pirates player in PSL history.
Earliest braces in PSL history (league only, all clubs) :
4min 4 seconds: Thamsanqa Gabuza (SSU v TS Galaxy) January 2021
4min 49 seconds: Mofokeng (Pirates v Sundowns) - March 2025*
6 mins: Geoffrey Massa (Tuks v Free State Stars) - Dec 2023
7 mins: Shaun Permall (Ajax v Bloem Celtic) - May 2001
7 mins: Thulani Ncube (Ajax v Cape Town) - Mar 2002
[NB: early PSL years have minutes only, not the seconds]
On Pirates players doubling up on the champions
5 - Mofokeng’s double was the 5th brace scored by an Orlando Pirates player against the PSL defending champions, but he is the youngest of those.
Five Pirates players that scored a brace against a defending champion (by age):
20y 144d: Mofokeng (March 2025 v Sundowns)*
21+196 - Manyathela (March 2003 v Santos)
24+51 - Kermit Erasmus (August 2014 v Sundowns)
24+332 - Dumisa Ngobe (Jan 1998 v Manning Rangers)
28+98d - Augustine Mulenga (April 2018 v Wits)
On Mhango’s rise up the scoring charts
70 - Gabadinho Mhango has scored 70 league goals in this PSL career, and is only the 15th player in PSL history to reach the 70-goal mark in the competition.
Top 5 active goalscorers in the league:
96 - Grobler Bradley
89 - Shalulile Peter
70 - Mhango, Frank*
57 - Zwane, Themba
54 - Mutizwa, Knox
Is 2-0 a dangerous scoreline?
-2 - Sundowns trailed 2-0 at half-time against Pirates (the 26th time Downs trailed by a 2+ margin at the break. They’ve lost 25 times when finding themselves in this situation and won just once (vs Ria Stars in November 2000 - 0-2 to 5-2).
How often does a PSL team come back from 2+ down in PSL history?
Wins from trailing by a 2+ margin: 2%
Draws: 7%
Losses: 91%
On Chiefs shooting boots?
21 - Kaizer Chiefs had 21 shots in their game against Richards Bay, their most without finding the net in a league game this season, and since January 2023 (v Sekhukhune).
Most shots without scoring in a game for Chiefs since we have full data (2020+):
22 - v Sekhukhune (Jan 2023)
21 - v Richards Bay (March 2025)*
21 - v Cape Town City (May 2023)
21 - v Stellenbosch (November 2021)
Bonus stats:
10 - Cape Town City are winless in their last 10 games (D3 L7 all comps). Only once before have they gone on a longer winless run (11 games until May 2024)
10 - Devin Titus (6G 4A) is the 5th player to reach 10 goal involvements in the league this season, after Lucas Costa, Iqraam Rayners, Keletso Makgalwa & Dženan Zajmovic.
10 - Elvis Chipezeze is the first goalkeeper to record 10 clean sheets in the top flight this season.
4 - Stellenbosch have won four consecutive away league games for the first time since their 2019 promotion.
1 - Sundowns had just one shot on target against Orlando Pirates (the goal; excl. blocked shots). The last time Downs’ had one shot on target that was also their only goal was in February last year (also v Pirates)