Mamelodi Sundowns will host USM Alger at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday 8 November. Kick-off is at 15:00 in South Africa, or 16:00 in East Africa.
The fixture brings together the winners of Africa’s two men’s continental club competitions. Sundowns qualified by winning the Champions League, while USM Alger earned their place through the Confederation Cup. Both have lifted the Super Cup before, Sundowns in 2017 and USM Alger in 2023. CAF has set the winners’ prize at US$500,000 and the runners-up award at US$250,000.
Two different routes to Pretoria
Sundowns earned their place over two legs against Morocco’s FAR Rabat. A narrow advantage from the first game mattered in the return fixture in Rabat: a 1–1 draw there gave the South Africans the Champions League title 2–1 on aggregate. Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams saved a penalty in a match in which the margins stayed tight enough for a single goal to change the outcome.
USM Alger had an even narrower passage through the Confederation Cup final. Across the two legs against Zamalek, the clubs scored once apiece. The Algerians eventually came through a shoot-out in Cairo, winning 8–7. The result gave them a second Confederation Cup title and a chance to repeat the double they completed in 2023, when they followed continental success with a Super Cup victory over Al Ahly.
What the head-to-head tells us
There is a previous continental meeting to consult, although it comes from a different competition and a different stage of the clubs’ development. Sundowns beat USM Alger twice in the group phase of the 2019–20 Champions League. The margin was one goal both times: 1–0 in Algiers and 2–1 at home. A group game offers another chance to recover dropped points. The Super Cup offers one afternoon to decide who lifts the trophy.
The hosts bring a similar piece of history of their own. Their previous Super Cup triumph came against TP Mazembe of DR Congo in 2017, also by a single goal. For fans trying to distinguish the competitions, the Super Cup puts the two reigning continental club champions on the same pitch. It does not reopen either of the longer campaigns through which they qualified.
Sunday’s local kick-off means a lunchtime start at 13:00 GMT for fans following from West Africa and a late-afternoon start in East Africa. A win would put either club’s name on the Super Cup for a second time. The difference between winning and finishing second is also worth a quarter of a million US dollars under CAF’s announced prize schedule.
