Saturday in the Betway Premiership belonged to the sides nobody expected anything from, and it cost our predictors.
Chippa United held Mamelodi Sundowns to a 1-1 draw in the late kickoff. Not one Prediz fan who predicted that match got the result, never mind the score. Sundowns still sit top on 20 points from eight games with a goal difference of plus 12, but this is the kind of afternoon that keeps a league honest. Orlando Pirates are on 13 from five played with a goal difference of plus 11, and they have three games in hand on the leaders. The six-point gap that has been the story of the last week is a lot more fragile than it looks when you read the played column.
Earlier, Polokwane City took a point off Kaizer Chiefs in a 1-1 draw. That one exposed our fans completely. The most common prediction on Prediz was 1-3 to Chiefs, from two fans, and it was the only prediction anyone made. Nobody had Polokwane getting anything. Chiefs stay on 12 points from six, fourth, and they have now spent an afternoon being reminded that away days in Limpopo are not a formality.
The one bright spot was AmaZulu 1-0 Marumo Gallants. Philani called it exactly, which is becoming a habit rather than a fluke, and AmaZulu move to 13 points from six games, level with Pirates and third on goal difference. Gallants stay in the bottom three on two points from six, with Siwelele on the same and Kruger United on one from five.
The wider lesson from Saturday is simple. Our fans are pricing the big three as if the scoreline is a formality, and three matches in a row have said otherwise. Two 1-1 draws and a single-goal AmaZulu win is a weekend of tight, low-scoring football, not the three and four goal blowouts that keep showing up in the prediction data.
Sunday brings three more, including Siwelele against Golden Arrows and TS Galaxy against Kruger United. If you are filling in your card tonight, look at what Saturday actually produced before you write another three-goal margin next to a big name.