Orlando Pirates ended their 14-year South African Premiership title drought and snapped Mamelodi Sundowns' eight-season winning streak with a 2-0 victory over Orbit College at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday, condemning Pogiso Makhoye's side to automatic relegation.
Pirates entered the final game of the season knowing that a win would make them champions, while anything less would hand a ninth straight title to Mamelodi Sundowns - who had finished their league season 11 days early due to a scheduling conflict with the CAF Champions League final.
Orbit College needed a point to guarantee their survival from automatic relegation regardless of the result of the concurrent fixture between Magesi and Richards Bay. Magesi were at the foot of the table before kick-off, but ultimately escaped with a 1-0 win.
The 'Mswenko Boys' - as Orbit are affectionately known - the get-go, defended from deep from the get-go, with the Sea Robbers hitting them with wave after wave on attack.
Pirates striker Yanela Mbuthuma led from the front and pressed relentlessly, making it difficult for Orbit to leave their own half even when they did manage to win possession.
In the second minute, Relebohile Mofokeng slipped Tshepang Moremi through for an early shot at goal, which he fired over the target. The flag went up for offside in any case in what was a marginal call, but Abdeslam Ouaddou's side had laid down a clear statement of intent.
The pressure continued thereafter, with Thalente Mbatha firing straight at goalkeeper Nkomo in the ninth minute for a comfortable save, but a reminder that Orbit were in for an uncomfortable afternoon.
For Pirates, the challenge was always going to be maintaining composure in an emotionally charged situation. Mofokeng blasted a shot over from long range after Moremi teed him up in the 13th minute.
Four minutes later, a blocked shot deflected into Mofokeng's path just inside the box and the star Bafana Bafana attacking midfielder's low shot grazed the outside of Nkomo's right post. Nkomo then made an alert save at the near post in the 22nd minute, holding onto Mbatha's low shot.
In the 34th minute, Oswin Appollis' through-ball from deep sent Moremi through on goal only for him to blaze over.
Appollis weaved free on the edge of the box and fired at goal a minute later, but his low shot was ultimately a tame one and comfortable for Nkomo.
In the 38th minute, Appollis was once again at the heart of the action as he played a one-two off Mofokeng and looked to square for Mbuthuma to tap in, but Nkomo got on top of the final ball to grasp it before it could reach the striker.
In the 44th minute, Orbit College almost flipped the script on its head at the other end from a corner. Lethabo Modimoeng met the ball, but hooked his shot wide with Pirates goalkeeper Sipho Chaine at sea.
It took until the fifth minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half - well beyond the minimum of three due to be played - for Pirates to break the deadlock. Nkomo attempted to punch the ball away from a corner with Mbatha applying pressure, but diverted it into his own net calamitously.
Orlando Pirates played with renewed freedom in the second half, but their second goal was another calamitous own goal in the 49th minute. Ngiba got on the end of a Mbatha pass from deep before the onrushing Mbuthuma, but fired into his own net with a finish that would have made the Buccaneers striker proud.
Mbuthuma had an opportunity of his own 66 minutes in, but stabbed wide of goal. With Magesi having taken the lead against Richards Bay early in the second half, Orbit were under pressure to turn the game in Mbombela around, but continued to offer precious little resistance.
Nkomo at least redeemed himself somewhat from his first half blunder with a 72nd-minute save to deny Kamogelo Sebelebele from point-blank range with the right-back through on goal.
There was to be no redemption for Orbit College, however. Chants of: "Sekusele kancane sizophumelela" (there is little time left; we are about to win) reverberated around Mbombela Stadium. It is a famous chant that was sung through years of heartbreak for Orlando Pirates, but this time, it was a signal of inevitability rather than one of hope through hopelessness.
The final whistle brought to an end years in the wilderness mixed with near misses. During Sundowns' run of eight successive Premiership titles, Pirates were runners-up five times: in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. Some of these title races were far closer than others.
Kaizer Chiefs pushed Sundowns to the final day of the season in 2019-20 and looked likely to win the league for much of that campaign. However, heavy spending and carefully planned continuity following the 2020 departure of head coach Pitso Mosimane ensured that the Motsepe family's club raced clear of their rivals over the subsequent four years.
Rhulani Mokwena - who had previously briefly been Orlando Pirates head coach, but spent most of his coaching education in the Sundowns system - presided over the most dominant Sundowns to date. In 2024, he left after leading Sundowns to the title by 23 points amid a widely reported fallout with sporting director Flemming Berg.
Mokwena's admirers may claim that the departure of the coach who had famously warned Sundowns fans that empires do not fall, but rather "dilapidate", was the beginning of the end.
Current Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso - who took over midway through the 2024-25 season after Manqoba Mngqithi briefly took charge at the beginning of that campaign - would point out that Sundowns finished last season with 73 points, equalling Mokwena's final tally over 30 matches in a reduced 28-game season after Royal AM were expelled from the league.
Even this season, Cardoso's Sundowns picked up 68 points in 30 games and are in a second successive CAF Champions League final - which they lead 1-0 on aggregate ahead of tomorrow's visit to AS FAR in Rabat for the second leg.
Whatever one may think of the current state of the Sundowns "empire", it certainly did not fall dramatically when Mokwena left. A more accurate reading of where the balance of power shifted would have to factor in that Pirates have grown in leaps and bounds.
Smart recruitment enabled them to make tidy profits on young stars they had unearthed, such as Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Mohau Nkota. Another, Mofokeng, has been their talisman this season on the wing and in the no.10 role. Only Appollis - who was essentially a replacement for Nkota - has been anywhere close to as impactful as the homegrown star known as 'President yama2k' (leader of those born in the 2000s).
If Orlando Pirates are now an empire in and of themselves, then theirs has been built by using the one lever Sundowns are notoriously reluctant to pull: the sale of star players to generate income.
José Riveiro had guided Orlando Pirates to three successive second-place finishes before Abdeslam Ouaddou succeeded him ahead of the current campaign. Before Ouaddou joined, smart recruitment of off-field staff - notably head of performance Ruan Rust from Stellenbosch FC - had put in place the fundamentals needed for the Moroccan mentor to succeed.
Ouaddou, however, deserves credit for completing a job which critics feared was beyond him after a slow start to the season. Most notably, to say he stuck to his promise to make the team more defensively robust and disciplined would be an understatement. Pirates have only conceded 12 league goals all season.
Pirates fans - known affectionately as 'The Ghost' - had longed for glory ever since their 2011-12 title, which they won under Augusto Palacios with Benni McCarthy making a decisive impact upfront.
They had lost a chance to celebrate at their own Orlando Amstel Arena when the Buccaneers failed to secure the league in last Saturday's 0-0 draw with Durban City.
Hearts were surely in mouths through the first half against Orbit College, but at long last, The Ghost is haunted no longer.