Greatest time wasting ever? Mamelodi Sundowns' masterclass in 2020

Time wasting in football is a skill that many try to pull off, some succeed in, but very few excel at.

South African outfit Mamelodi Sundowns weren’t afraid to reach into the book of dark arts in 2020, but they turned it up to a new level that football’s most polarising managers would be proud of.

For all of the flak the likes of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Diego Simeone receive for their reliance on winning by any means necessary, there’s nothing better than being a fan of that side and seeing such gamesmanship pulled off to perfection.

Typically, holding the ball in the corner to run down the clock is one of the very last tricks in the book. You’ve got to nail every aspect of it, from the number of players committed, to drawing the fouls, and to the timing of it.

We see it all the time in major European football, from Premier League sides trying to clinch precious points, to Champions League classics where a side is on the verge of advancing.

It’s the last attempt to eke out a result. As soon as the injury time goes up and there’s a narrow win that needs securing, get that ball as far away from your own goal as possible and keep it out of play where you can.

However, as we said, the Sundowns went too far with their efforts to run down the clock in 2020, and it created what is quite possibly the greatest and most sensational sequence of time wasting we will ever see in football.

The clip of the most absurd example of running down the clock in football has resurfaced on Reddit and absolutely blown up, due to the efforts of the Sundowns, who were playing against Bloem Celtic and leading 2-1 with little over seven minutes of normal time still to play.

For some context, the following occurred in February 2020 with the