In a class of their own in the PSL right now and effectively the number one team in Africa by virtue of annexing CAF’s Champions League trophy, Mamelodi Sundowns’ ill-fated campaign in FIFA’s Club World Cup in Japan tends paradoxically to expose further African soccer in its entirety. And for those who might view this assessment from Sundowns’ two defeats in their two games against Japan’s Kashima Antlers and South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai to be in the realms of an exaggeration, it is as well to be reminded of the fact that no African nation has as yet progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Soccer World Cup and no African club has annexed the Club World Cup either.