8 Stats From The MTN8 Semi-finals

The Top 8 competition was launched in 1972 and has been competed by teams who finished in the league’s top 8 positions in the preceding top-flight campaign. 50 years later, there are some still debating whether the MTN8 should count as a proper trophy. Whichever side of the fence you fall on, the latest semi-finals showed that for the players, this means a lot. Both matches were closely contested, with the earliest goal coming in the 46th minute. Both matches would also see dramatic injury-time goals, an equaliser for Sundowns on Saturday and a winner for Pirates on Sunday. In both semi-finals, the unfavored sides (odds-wise) took the lead, with the favourites forced to chase the game until the final moments. Here are eight stats that stood out from a genuinely exciting Cup weekend.

All Goals Were Headers

5 – All five goals scored this weekend were headers, bringing the total for headed goals in this season’s competition to six. That’s more headed goals than the last two editions combined (1 & 4).

Edson Castillo Has Hit The Ground Running

2 – Castillo is just the third Chiefs player to score in the quarter-final and semi-final of the Top 8 in his first PSL season at the club (also Khama Billiat in 2018 and fellow Venezuelan Jose Torrealba in 2008). However, Castillo is the first to do so in his debut PSL season.

Pirates Overcome Cape Hoodoo

2 – This was only Orlando Pirates’ second win in the last 13 games away to Cape-based opponents (Cape Town City/Stellies/Ajax, excluding bio-bubble games), drawing six and losing five since 2017. Both wins have come against Stellenbosch.

Patrick Maswanganyi Is A Good Player

3 – No player has provided more assists in both domestic competitions for Orlando Pirates so far this season than Patrick Maswanganyi (3).

Zakhele Lepasa Is On Fire

10 – Zakhele Lepasa scored his 10th goal of the season, making him the first top-flight player to score double-digit goals across all competitions this season. In doing so, he also became the fastest player to score 10 goals in a PSL season for Orlando Pirates, doing so in 8 appearances (Ndoro 10 in 11 in 2016/17).

Stellies Keep Shooting Themselves In The foot

2 – Stellenbosch have received a red card in back-to-back matches. Along with Sundowns are the only two teams to have received two reds in all competitions this season.

Chiefs Know How To Score Against Sundowns

500 – Sundowns conceded a goal for the first time in 500 minutes, a run of 5+ games without conceding. The last goal they conceded also came to Kaizer Chiefs in the league last month.

Jose Riveiro Loves A Cup Game

13 – Orlando Pirates are now unbeaten in all 13 Cup games under Jose Riveiro (W11 D2), the joint-longest a Pirates coach has gone unbeaten in Cups at the start of their tenure (Josef Zinnbauer also 13).