Blog: 'The Special One' of SA soccer

As I write this column (on Tuesday morning), the destiny of the 2013/14 PSL league title is almost all but decided. Mamelodi Sundowns, under the guidance of Pitso Mosimane, have given South African soccer a master class in handling pressure and getting the job done. 'The Special One' of South African soccer has shown that, with the right type of man management, with proper planning and by relying solely on local nous (both his own and that of his technical team), domination of South African soccer is possible.     Not too many coaches who have come to Mamelodi Sundowns have been able to get it right. The big-money club attracts a lot of top talent and many big egos, and often that has been the downfall of the club as head coaches have failed to manage those egos well enough. Hats off to Pitso for keeping a handle on the dressing room, for dishing up entertaining soccer and for resurrecting the career of Teko Modise, whose star was fading at the start of this season.   Now, because of the Soccer Laduma print deadline, if you read this and Sundowns have indeed won the PSL, we would not have been able to cover it in this edition. To ensure that Soccer Laduma is in stores around the country on Wednesday morning, we go off to print on a Tuesday afternoon and so are not able to cover Tuesday night's games. But rest assured that in next week's edition, the PSL Champions will feature heavily, whoever they may be! Expect a double page pull-out poster for your wall and all the post championship reactions.      Now, talking about crowning a champion, next week sees Soccer Laduma announce the winner of the Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season.   Congratulations to Itumeleng Khune and Willard Katsande for making it to the final round of voting.    That being said, there was a lot of disappointment in the Soccer Laduma offices last week as we witnessed the ugly side of a competition that should be an opportunity for South African soccer fans to put their best foot forward.   Soccer Laduma runs the Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season with the sole intention of giving the football fan in SA a say about who they feel should be crowned their PSL Player of the Season. It's a chance for your vote, as a reader, to mean something and for your opinions to be recognised.    That is why it is so sad that a couple of 'spoilers' took it upon themselves to cheat in the penultimate round of voting in this season's Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season contest. They did their very best to destroy the spirit for which the contest was intended and it only resulted in cheating you, the fellow readers, as well as the contestants.    Irregularities in the voting numbers prompted the Soccer Laduma technical team to look into the voting mechanism, and we are saddened that a group of people took it upon themselves to create multiple accounts so as to rig the voting.  As such, all the 'fake votes' were discounted when we tallied up the votes for the two finalists so as to ensure that the integrity of the contest was maintained.    Once it has been determined by our team who the culprits are who tried to cheat the Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season, those individuals will be banned for life from the Soccer Laduma digital platforms, and the Soccer Laduma team is now considering whether it is even worth running this contest in seasons to come. That the actions of a few can hurt so many is regrettable, and we are doing our best to devise a workable solution going forward.    Also to be announced next week will be the Soccer Laduma editorial team's Player of the Season, and you can be assured this will be a hotly debated contest within our offices.    Finally, for those of you who are reading your Soccer Laduma today (a public holiday Wednesday), please let your fellow Soccer Laduma friends and family know that we are indeed on sale as per usual at all of the usual outlets which have stayed open today. If the shop at which you usually get your Soccer Laduma is closed, please be assured that we will be on the stands tomorrow (Thursday) once they have opened and are able to take delivery of our latest edition.    Thanks again for all of your support! Please go out there and exercise your right to vote, both for your country, but also for your Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season.    Shapa, Clint