PSL Weekend Stats – Matchday 3

Cometh the half-hour, cometh the man. Themba Zwane is the headline maker this weekend, after netting a first-half hat-trick in Sundowns 4-3 league win over AmaZulu on Sunday. The reigning Footballer of the Year was awarded Man of the Match as well, as Sundowns returned to the top of the DSTV Premiership table. He features heavily in our weekend stats round up, alongside other hat-trick heroes and more. 

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For clarity, the difference between the fastest and earliest hat-trick is that when we talk about the fastest, we’re considering the time between the first and third goal. When we mention the earliest, we’re talking about how early in the game a player had scored his treble.

2

Themba Zwane is only the second Sundowns player to score a first-half hat-trick in the league, after Daniel Mudau in 1999, although Zwane’s hat-trick is the earliest (by the 30th minute) and fastest (in the space of 11 minutes) by a Downs player.

2

Sundowns have now seen two league hat-tricks in the space of 79 days, having taken 5015 days (13+ years) to see two league hat-tricks before then.

40 

With his hat-trick against AmaZulu on Sunday, Themba Zwane has now scored 40 league goals for Sundowns, eclipsing Raphael Chukwu & Khama Billiat (both 39) for PSL era goals. 

4 

Zwane is now the 4th highest league scorer for PSL era Sundowns. Only Daniel Mudau (84), Surprise Moriri (51), Katlego Mphela (48) scored more league goals for Downs in the competition.

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5 

The fastest league hat-trick in PSL history was scored by James Chamanga in 5 minutes in 2007 (20 to 25th minute).

16 

The earliest league hat-trick in PSL history was scored by the 16th minute – Bhongolwethu Jayiya for Cape Town City in April 2017, although it took him 10 minutes to get his treble.

2m56s 

An African also holds the record for the fastest hat-trick seen in the English Premier League, as Sadio Mane took just two minutes and 56 seconds to score a hattrick for Southampton in 2015.

7 

AmaZulu have conceded more league hat-tricks in the PSL than any other PSL side (7), with Siyabonga Nomvethe (1998), Pollen Ndlanya (2002), Chris Katongo (2007), Bryce Moon (2011), Bernard Parker (2012),and Eleazar Rodger (2014) all scoring trebles against Usuthu.

10 

Stellenbosch FC picked up their 10th league win in the top-flight over the weekend, going level with Michau Warriors (remember them?) on 10 league wins. The Warriors 10 wins also came in 34 games, just like Stellies.

2017 

The last time there were two teams scoring 4+ goals in the league on the same day was 5 December 2017. Just like yesterday, the two matches involved Sundowns and Cape Town City, although Cape Town City lost 4-2 to Maritzburg that day.