Pirates walk the plank
ORLANDO Pirates bombing out of the quarterfinal of the Telkom Knockout was the continuation of their poor record in this cup competition.
The Ghosts had shown some resilience to come from behind twice‚ trying to give themselves a chance to beat an irrepressible Polokwane City at Orlando Stadium on Saturday night. Pirates‚ however‚ ended up losing 4-2 in a penalty shootout when defenders Ntsikelelo Nyauza and Marc van Heerden failed to convert their spot-kicks after the match ended 2-2 after 120 minutes.
Nyauza played a commendable role in Bucs’ terrific comeback‚ scoring the equaliser in the 13th minute before Mpho Makola headed in another leveller before half-time after Polokwane striker Rendani Ndou had completed his brace.
While Pirates have played in eight of the previous 35 finals since the competition was launched in 1982‚ success came only once when they defeated Bidvest Wits 3-1 in the 2011 edition.
Pirates’ tale in this competition is a disastrous one if compared to that of their Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs‚ who have lifted the trophy a record 13 times after contesting 17 finals.
Mamelodi Sundowns are the closest chasers of Chiefs in this competition as the Brazilians have won three out of seven deciders they’ve been part of. Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic was visibly distraught and exhausted after once again seeing his side creating a number of chances but failing to be rewarded.
“It’s been the story of our season and I can’t blame the players for lack of trying‚” said Sredojevic.
“We did everything to win this match but a combination of allowing our opponents to score two goals and us failing to take our chances‚ let us down.”
Most of the glaring chances Sredojevic is talking about fell on attackers Makola‚ Thembinkosi Lorch‚ substitute Thabiso Kutumela and Thamsanqa Gabuza, who despite missing one of the big chances in the match had a great game, contributing with two assists in Pirates’ goals.
Going into the match what was eagerly awaited was Sredojevic’s decision on who he was to start in Bucs’ goals after Wayne Sandilands had a horror of a game in the midweek 3-1 defeat against Sundowns.
But after the game Sredojevic explained that he had no option but to again start with the Bafana ’keeper after he was forced to make a couple of changes in defence.
“Innocent Maela and Abbubaker Mobara got injured and when you look at the goalkeeping department you had four defenders in front of our ’keeper and we already had two changes.
“I had to play Sandilands to stabilise the defence and I think he did very well‚ only to be let down by other players by not cutting out the danger in both goals that we conceded.”
The Serbian promised to fix Bucs ailments in defence and up front.
He is cherishing the two-week Fifa break‚ hoping it will help him to tie up a number of loose ends before they host second-placed Golden Arrows in a league encounter on November 21.