The 2019-20 Premier Soccer League season has tipped across the halfway mark with 131 out of the 240 league matches completed. There’s more excitement to come, but there’s one little stat that stands out at this point of the season.
AmaZulu’s Bonginkosi Ntuli, who is tied for the league’s leading goal scorer with Gabadinho Mhango from Orlando Pirates (ten goals each) has scored 91% of his side’s goals. Yes, that’s right. Ntuli has scored ten out of AmaZulu’s 11 goals in the league – more than any other player’s contribution to their side’s tally.
He was the sole goal scorer for his side up to AmaZulu’s 1-2 win over Bloemfontein Celtic back in December. Butholezwe Ncube found the back of the net on that occasion.
Goal scoring has been a bit of a problem for the PSL, but with all teams having just under half of their fixtures remaining, the top scorer should at least pip last season’s tally of 16 goals and almost certainly will surpass the paltry total of 11 goals back in the 2017-18 season.
Ntuli, though, could be on course for an impressive feat if his form continues and AmaZulu fail to find another spark.
His side managed to squeeze a point out of Cape Town City FC in their midweek clash and coach Jozef Vukusic said he was content with the effort his side put in.
?It was very important for us, our minimum target was to get one point,? Vukusic said after the match.
?The game did not start well for us, we were two goals behind. We must respect the nice shots that made it 2-0 for them [City].
?But we showed character, we are still trying to find the balance between defence and offense, and we need to manage the game better, but finally the team played to their potential.?
Usuthu host title-challengers SuperSport in Durban on Sunday, where Ntuli could further add to his tally.
The tables below show the league’s top scorers, both in terms of their percentage contribution and their total goals scored – both home and away.
Top goal scorers in South Africa’s top division
Stats as on 9 January 2020.
