Coaches at odds over derby result
PIRATES DESERVED TO TAKE FULL POINTS
Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs head coaches Josef Zinnbauer and Gavin Hunt were at odds as to who deserved to win Saturday’s Soweto derby in which the Buccaneers prevailed 2-1 over their bitter rivals at Orlando Stadium.
While Zinnbauer said their victory was entirely merited, Hunt begged to differ, after watching his Amakhosi side slip to a third defeat of the season against the Buccaneers.
This DStv Premiership win piled on the derby misery for Chiefs after a 5-0 aggregate defeat by Pirates in the early-season MTN8 semifinals.
Hunt’s side, however, really had only themselves to blame this time around, missing a penalty and seeing several other opportunities go to waste.
Still, Pirates also had a good few chances of their own, converting two of them.
Thembinkosi Lorch finally broke the offside trap to give the Buccaneers a first half lead, before Siphesihle Ndlovu added another after the break.
Chiefs managed to pull one back late in the match, courtesy of Daniel Cardoso, but their fivematch unbeaten run in the league came to an end, while Pirates got back on the winning trail after the midweek draw with TS Galaxy.
“I think we were good in the first half, we had opportunities. We have to check if that was offside (Vincent Pule was ruled narrowly offside in the 27th minute). After scoring (through Lorch) we had another big chance in the last minutes of the first half, and I was a little bit upset (not to have used the scoring chance), but we deserved to win,” said Zinnbauer.
Hunt, however, believed Chiefs gave a very good performance and were unlucky not to have been the side walking away with maximum points.
“We should have won the game,” said Hunt, whose team should have drawn level when they won a second half spot kick, but Richard Ofori saved Samir Nurkovic’s penalty and Siyabonga Ngezana somehow put the rebound wide.
“I thought we played very well. I also think we had more than enough chances to win the game.”