Mabasa keeps hat-trick heroics going strong

Tshegofatso Mabasa’s hat-trick for Orlando Pirates on Saturday was the sixth of the 2023-24 Premier Soccer League season, making it a profitable return for players notching up a trio of goals in a game.

Mabasa’s three against a hapless Lamontville Golden Arrows in the DStv Premiership on Saturday was the sixth hat-trick bagged this season – three of them in the league and a further three in cup action.

It is the most in a single campaign since the 2019-20 season and the second-highest number of hat-tricks in a season for almost a decade.

Mabaso brings the tally of hat-tricks since the start of the PSL in 1996 to 180.

The tally takes in not only league action but also domestic cups and a sprinkling in African club competitions as well.

This campaign started almost immediately, with a hat-trick when Zakhele Lepasa scored three for Pirates against Sekhukhune United in the MTN8 quarterfinal tie in August.

SUCCESSIVE HAT-TRICKS

Then came the rare feat of successive hat-tricks in meetings between the same two clubs.

First, the Ivorian import Sede Dion scored all the goals as AmaZulu beat Arrows 3-0 in their Carling Knockout quarterfinal tie at the start of November.

Eight days later the two Durban outfits met again in the league and this time Nigerian Augustine Chidi Kwem grabbed a hat-trick for AmaZulu in a 3-1 away win.

In February, two of Mamelodi Sundowns’ Latin imports got hat-tricks with Gaston Sirino scoring three against La Masia in the Nedbank Cup and then Lucas Ribeiro getting a hat-trick against AmaZulu.

The 2015-16 season produced a particularly good return with a total of eight hat-tricks after many years where a trio of goals from a player in a single game had become a rather rare item, but in the 2017-18 there were none.