Bucs can make Happy smile
Orlando Pirates captain Happy Jele is quietly optimistic about their chances of progressing to the Caf Champions League group stages when they take on Namibian side African Stars at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Saturday.
The Buccaneers headed to Windhoek on Friday in danger of being eliminated from the tournament after they were held to a goalless draw in Johannesburg last weekend where they missed a plethora of scoring chances.
“We know it won’t be a walk in the park but we are prepared to fight and do whatever it takes to come out tops there‚” he said, adding that they have been preparing on an artificial pitch in Soweto to get used to conditions they are going to face in Namibia.
“We have been training at the Nike Centre in Soweto this week in order to acclimatise to the conditions because we know the match will be played on astroturf and in extremely hot conditions.
“We have done all we can to prepare adequately, and now all that is left is to go and get the job done.”
Jele‚ who has captained Pirates in the 2013 Champions League and 2015 Confederations Cup finals defeats‚ said they must be at their best in all departments because Stars proved to be a good defensive outfit.
“Ideally we would have preferred to win the match at home convincingly, but we played against a good defensive side. They were compact and well organised at the back,” he said.
Looking back at last weekend’s first leg encounter‚ Jele lamented the fact that they missed too many scoring chances that could have put them in a better position to progress to the next round.
“It is true that we missed a lot of chances at home and that is regrettable, but the flip side of that is that we played positive attacking football despite the defensive block we had to contend with.
“The fact that we were able to create chances tells us that it is possible to penetrate their defence and that is what we are preparing for.”