Zinnbauer is concerned with misfiring marksmen

It was another unsatisfactory result for Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer (right) after his side was held to a goalless draw by Golden Arrows in a DStv Premiership match at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.

However, even though the final scoreline wasn’t what he had expected from his charges, the German-born coach was actually happy with his team’s performance, despite their failure to find the net.

Zinbauer said, in any event, it was an improvement from their last game, which they lost 2-0 to struggling Black Leopards.

“Better game than the last game, we had good opportunities to score in the first half. In one situation I think it was Bongani Sam who was caught offside but we had good opportunities, we overloaded on the sides, in the box, but the final pass was just not good enough,” said the Bucs coach.

“We were also unlucky with Thembinkosi Lorch hitting the post. In the second half we wanted to win and I told the players to play more offensively, but the opponents got more opportunities. But we certainly had better opportunities to score. There was a problem with our final pass and the shooting.”

He also singled out Deon Hotto’s good chance to score, but his first touch let him down.

“If you don’t score you can’t win the game, but the performance from the guys today (Wednesday) was okay, it was much better. But the result is not enough for me.”

The Bucs coach went on to explain the reason behind the substitutions of key players Vincent Pule and Thembinkosi Lorch.

“Pule was out for two weeks due to sickness. Lorch was injured and now he has (played) a lot of games in a row. I think this is the reason for a lot of turnovers. If you don’t have full conditioning, you can’t concentrate and lose easy balls. I think it was not the best game from both guys. But they had chances to score, Lorch and Pule, but it was not enough.”

Pirates are now in sixth place on the log and they next travel to KwaZulu-Natal for a meeting with Maritzburg United tomorrow.