Seven Prediz fans predicted AmaZulu against Golden Arrows on Saturday evening. Two of them, Siphamandla and Lwandle, put down 1-0 and watched it land exactly. That is the best exact-score return of any match on the card, and it came in the game our fans were least convinced by: the most common prediction was a 0-0 draw, chosen by two fans.
Only one other fan had the right winner. So of seven entries, three got anything at all out of the match, and two of those three got everything.
The scoreline tells you why people hesitated. AmaZulu do not blow teams away. They sit third on 22 points from nine matches with a goal difference of plus five, while Orlando Pirates above them are at plus 19 and Mamelodi Sundowns at plus 18. Usoythsha are winning tight games rather than winning them loudly, and SuperSport reported after the weekend that this was their fifth straight Betway Premiership victory. A run like that built on one-goal margins is exactly the kind of thing prediction cards keep missing. A 0-0 feels sensible every single week until it is not.
Three points separate the top three. Sundowns lead on 26 from ten played, Pirates are on 25 from nine, AmaZulu on 22 from nine. AmaZulu have a game in hand on the leaders and they are the only side in that group with a soft goal difference, which matters if it ever comes down to separating teams at the top.
Wednesday night is where this gets interesting. AmaZulu travel to Kaizer Chiefs, who are fifth on 14 points, eight behind them. Three Prediz fans have put a prediction in on it so far. That is the lowest count on a seven-match card where every other fixture has four.
Siphamandla and Lwandle have shown the way on this team already: when AmaZulu play, go narrow rather than scoreless. Chiefs at home is a harder read than Arrows away, but a card with three entries on it is a card where a correct result is worth more to your weekly standing than a crowded fixture everyone has called the same way.