Traditionally, the PSL is a low scoring league. But this season has taken on a new low when it comes to that claim. Who can forget 2010 (not for the World Cup), but for the first time there were less than 500 goals in a PSL season. As a number, 500 has a nice ring to it and has been considered a season-long standard in PSL stats for a while. When a season goes below 500 (as it happened again in 2017/18), the alarm bells start ringing to the tune of “Where have all the goals gone?”.
2 – Only twice before (499 in 2009/10 and 490 in 2017/18) have there been less than 500 goals in a PSL season.
Hold my beer, says 2021/22.
If you were a betting man and bet only on matches ending with Less than 0.5 goals this season, you’d have got your money back and more on 45 occasions. As early as May 4, this season broke a 20-year record for goalless draws – set in 2001/2 (39 goalless draws). To make matters worse, the league still played 306 games then, 66 more than we play now (240).
45 – This season has now seen 45 matches end 0-0 – extending the new record for goalless draws in a single PSL campaign.
It’s weird that in a season where Peter Shalulile has come closest to breaking the PSL goalscoring record for a player, the entire league is going in the other direction. Teams have fired blanks 182 times all campaign (including goalless draws & defeats to nought e.g 0-1, 0-2 etc), another new record for a 30-game season. 171 was the previous highest (2009/10), but the glass half-full man may see this in a different light, and choose to focus on the keepers instead:
182 – There have been 182 clean sheets in the DSTV Premiership this season, a new record for a 30-game campaign.
Statistics. Bikinis. etc.
It’s more than just goalless draws, however. Altogether, there have been 89 drawn matches this season, five short of the 30-game record (94 last season) and 10 short of the all-time PSL record (99 games in 200/01). Eleven of the 16 teams have drawn 10+ games, and a TS Galaxy draw in their last game would make it 12, equalling the 30-game record set .. wait for it… last season.
Galaxy play Chippa (who’ve drawn 4 in a row), so you could bet on that ending in a draw with a high degree of confidence. Chippa and Marumo Gallants (both 9) are two of the main culprits when it comes to goalless draws this season, but the ‘Goalless draws’ trophy is currently headed towards Cape Town.
10 – Cape Town City have registered the most goalless draws this season (10), and could equal the PSL record for goalless draws in a season if their last game of the season ends 0-0.
The number of goalless draws is just a symptom; it doesn’t take an expert to predict the end result – we’re coughing towards the lowest scoring season in PSL history. Unless 41 goals are scored in the last gameweek, this will be the worst scoring season in PSL history. Can we get 41 goals? Here’s a clue – the average number of goals for a gameweek this season is 16.
By Opta Jabu
