South African outfit Mamelodi Sundowns will clash against South Korea’s Ulsan HD in this Group F encounter of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Here are our preview and prediction for the game.
FIFA Club World Cup 2025 | Group F: Ulsan HD FC vs Mamelodi Sundowns FC | 03:30, June 18
Mamelodi Sundowns are the best team in South African football at the moment. They recently won their eighth straight South African Premiership title and reached the finals of the CAF Champions League, where they lost to Egyptian side Pyramids on aggregate.
A lot of criticism has been levied at Sundowns and their recent era of dominance, given the financial disparity between them and the rest of the league, though it’s also worth noting that they were a dominant force in the region well before the takeover by South African billionaire — also current CAF President — Patrice Motsepe.
Sundowns are an experienced outfit with plenty of exposure to tournament football. They also boast a strong South African core in their squad, comprising players from the international side that recently made the semi-finals of the 2023 African Cup of Nations.
The team will be relying chiefly on their South African veterans, midfielder Themba Zwane and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. In attack, they’ll look to the goalscoring prowess of Brazilian forward Lucas Ribeiro, the creativity of Chilean attacking midfielder Marcelo Allende, South Africa international Jayden Adams’ versatility in midfield, and the unpredictable brilliance of their other Brazilian forward, Arthur Sales.
Sundowns will hope that their style of “shoeshine and piano”, which is the South African equivalent of the Spanish tiki-taka, will put them and South African football on the global map.
Their opponents for this game are no scrubs. Ulsan arrive at this tournament having won the K League 1 for three straight seasons. However, a four-peat is a distant dream for them, given they are third in table in the ongoing K League 1 season, nine points behind leaders Jeonbuk.
Ulsan will be relying on the fact that they boast one of the most internationally experienced players in their ranks in Kim Young-gwon, who has represented South Korea 112 times. Apart from him, they’ll also have Swedes Darijan Bojanic and Gustav Ludwigson, both of whom have European experience from their time playing for Swedish side Hammarby. They also have Venezuelan winger Matías Lacava, who has the distinction of being in the youth setups of Barcelona, Lazio, and Benfica.
There is very little to choose between the two sides, given that they are giants in their respective domestic landscapes. However, the overall quality and squad depth of Mamelodi Sundowns gives them a slight edge over their South Korean counterparts in this fixture.
Score Prediction: Ulsan 1–2 Mamelodi Sundowns
Venue: Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, Florida
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