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Johannesburg - The misery continued for a sinking Mamelodi Sundowns as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Free State Stars at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Saturday afternoon and virtually kissed goodbye their hopes of annexing the Premier League title.
Runaway log leaders at the halfway stage of the title race, there seems no halting the almost eerie decline of the charismatic, big-spending team known as The Brazilians - no matter who is in the driver's seat as coach and which players constitute their line-up.
And pointedly, perhaps, the two most publicised and controversial players in the PSL right now, Teko Modise and Katlego Mphela, flopped dismally in what a sleuth with the acumen of a Sherlock Holmes might deduce is a pointer to the team's harrowing decline.
Modise, transferred from Orlando Pirates recently after a running battle with The Buccaneers, started a game for Sundowns for the first time and demonstrated nothing of note on attack or defence.
And Bafana Bafana striker Mphela, who went into voluntary exile when Sundowns refused to agree to his transfer request to Serbian club Partizan Belgrade, proved more of a liability than anything else when he returned as a 30th minute substitute for the injured Nyasha Mushekwi.
It was the powerful Mushekwi who had equalised for Sundowns in the 28th minute with a fearless header - only to be knocked out as though he had received a Mike Tyson right hook when Stars goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene miscued an attempted punched clearance.
Zimbabwean Mushekwi had looked Sundowns' most lively and dangerous player and the idea that his substitution by a rusty Mphela might not prove serious proved palpably off the mark.
Stars, the more enterprising team for much of the 90 minutes on a cloudy, but sultry afternoon and deserving of what was only their second-ever success over Sundowns, opened the score in the 25th minute through a well-directed shot from Thabo Matlaba.
Then with the teams attacking in turn, but rarely looking like breaking the 1-1 deadlock that existed for 45 minutes of play, Phumlani Mhamha produced the headed winner following a corner in the 75th minute.
And nothing during the 90 minutes demonstrated Sundowns' decline more forcibly than the inept defending which sent them sliding to another defeat - with no fewer than seven defenders standing flat-footed as the enterprising Mhamha took advantage of this lack spirit in a side which seems to be lacking in confidence and endeavour.
No wonder Sundowns' supporters left the Peter Mokaba Stadium with heads bowed after their team had squandered a seven-point lead in the championship race by what could amount to a net deficit of 16 points over the past five weeks to the current leaders.
