Analysis
Every Pirates supporter in Durban had a reason to believe. Their side had won the last four editions of this competition, and twice in the last three years the penalty spot had settled an MTN8 tie with Sundowns in their favour. On Saturday night, around the hour, Gamphani Lungu put the ball down twelve yards out with Pirates a goal behind and the chance to drag the final level. Ronwen Williams said no. If you are looking for the MTN8 final turning point, this was it. The result, and what Miguel Cardoso said afterwards, are in our match report; this piece is about one kick.
The moment
Sundowns were ahead through Teboho Mokoena’s early goal, and for long stretches of the first half Sipho Chaine’s saves were the main reason the margin was only one. Pirates had looked short of ideas. Then the game handed them a lifeline from the most unlikely source: Mokoena himself, penalised for a foul on Yanela Mbuthuma inside the area.
Lungu took it. Williams read it, went down low to his left and got a firm hand to the ball, which cannoned off the post and away. The reports cannot agree on the exact minute, with anything from the 59th to the 63rd quoted, so we will not pretend to know it. What nobody disputes is the scoreboard afterwards. It still said 1-0.
It was not a spectacular save from distance. It was a goalkeeper choosing the right side and reaching far enough, at the one moment the final could not afford him to be wrong.
Why it was the MTN8 final turning point
Think about what a goal there would have done. Level, with roughly half an hour of normal time to play, Pirates would have had the momentum and Sundowns would have had a choice they did not want: chase a second goal, or sit and risk extra time.
And the last two times this MTN8 tie has gone to the spot, Pirates have had the last word. In the 2023 final, at the same stadium, the sides could not be separated over 120 minutes, and Chaine saved three penalties as Pirates won the shootout 3-1. In the 2025 semi-final the second leg went straight to penalties after 90 minutes, and he did it to them again, keeping out Mokoena and Marcelo Allende in a 4-1 shootout. Our preview warned that Sundowns’ takers would be facing a goalkeeper with the edge on them. Lungu’s kick was the first real chance for that history to come back into play.
Instead the duel from twelve yards went the other way, to the keeper whose own record from the spot is not bad either. In February 2024 Williams saved four penalties in Bafana Bafana’s AFCON quarter-final shootout against Cape Verde. Saturday was one save, not four, but it shifted the weight of the whole evening.
The save also let Cardoso manage the game rather than rescue it. Soon after, he took off Nuno Santos and sent on Thabo Cele, a change to steady the midfield, not to go hunting. At 1-1 that substitution looks very different.
What changed after it
Pirates did not fold. SuperSport’s report has them pinning Sundowns back towards the edge of their own area, and the club’s own report says Thalente Mbatha sent a close-range effort just wide not long after the penalty. With about a quarter of an hour of normal time left, Abdeslam Ouaddou changed his attack.
Williams kept answering. iDiski Times counted three important second-half saves from him, the penalty included. The Pirates report singles out one from Deon Hotto, and notes that Brayan León missed a one-on-one at the other end that would have settled things sooner.
In the end it took until stoppage time, when Siyanda Ndlovu was fouled and substitute Iqraam Rayners scored from the spot. Pirates’ four-year hold on the MTN8 was over, and so, according to the club, was their unbeaten start to the season. Sundowns had their first MTN8 since 2021.
Cup finals are remembered for their goals. This one should be remembered for the one that hit the post and stayed out. Strip away that save and the night belongs to a different story, perhaps the old one. More on the man who made it is on our Ronwen Williams page, and both clubs’ seasons continue on our Sundowns and Pirates pages.