Thabo Mokoena: Football Writer, Johannesburg

I am Thabo Mokoena, writing about football from Johannesburg for readers in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. My beats are the Premiership, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana, with the Soweto derby central to my South African coverage. I cover soccer, as South African readers call it, with an emphasis on explaining the game.

My approach gives you the reasoning behind an assessment, including the defensive details that can disappear from a discussion of the score. Below, I explain what catches my attention and how to weigh the predictions that accompany my analysis.

Where Do I Write From, and How Did I Come to the Game?

From my Johannesburg base, I use the Soweto derby as a reference point when thinking about other fixtures. Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates share roots in Soweto, and I believe their rivalry deserves an account that gives each club its due. As a house writer, I offer a football perspective without presenting myself as a former player or claiming press box experience. You can assess that perspective by comparing my explanations with the available match and competition data.

How Do I Watch the Game, and What Do I Look For?

I begin with the work that prevents chances, then turn to the players who finish them. In my reading of a season, goals conceded offer a useful starting point for judging whether performances rest on repeatable habits. That means watching how a side defends an advantage and asking what supports its results beyond a spell of scoring. The Premiership remains my main focus, with European football as the second thread I follow through African players and their connections abroad. Senegal international Sadio Mané, a Premier League champion with Liverpool in 2019/20, offers one example of that connection between African football and a European title.

I look at the space around a defender as well as the challenge itself: whether midfield offers protection, how the full backs recover and where possession is lost. When discussing an African player abroad, I use those same questions to explain his role within the team.

What Can You Expect From My Pages?

My coverage takes in Premiership clubs, Bafana Bafana and head to head guides, alongside the South African country section, which I write. The table (or log at home), fixture list, results and records appear in data modules refreshed after each match. I leave changing positions and points totals to those modules so the written analysis does not depend on a particular final whistle. My role is to explain the competition and help you interpret its numbers in language that remains useful across seasons.

African connections guide that coverage, including the players whose careers link domestic football with competitions abroad. Kick off listings bring WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT together, allowing readers in Lagos, Nairobi, Kampala, Accra and Johannesburg to find their local time for the same fixture. Country specific viewing information sits alongside the fixture data, where you can check the listed coverage.

How Should You Read My Predictions and Analysis?

I present a prediction as a judgement expressed through an estimated probability. An estimate of six chances in ten leaves four chances in ten for a different outcome, which is part of how the call should be read. Its accompanying reference price translates that estimate into a figure you can compare with an available price. Unsuccessful predictions remain alongside successful ones, giving you a record against which to assess my judgement. You can also use the supporting data to reach a different conclusion from mine.

For example, a 60 per cent estimate corresponds to a decimal reference price of about 1.67, calculated by dividing one by 0.60. I also explain which outcome the estimate covers, so a call about winning in normal time can be assessed on its stated terms.