Pirates coach still greedy for much more goals

Josef Zinnbauer (right) praised his side for an emphatic victory over Jwaneng Galaxy on Sunday, which put Orlando Pirates on the brink of qualifying for the group stages of the Caf Confederation Cup.

Pirates won the first leg at the Botswana National Stadium 3-0, with goals from Thulani Hlatshwayo, Linda Mtambo and Jean-Marc Makusu, though the Buccaneers head coach felt they could have won by an even bigger margin.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score in the first 15 minutes, but their goalkeeper was very good. From minute to minute we came closer to scoring. I’m happy that we scored from set-pieces against strong and tall opponents,” said Zinnbauer.

“I think we dominated the game in the second half and we had opportunities to score more goals. Our opponents had one or two chances to score, but at the end of the day, we deserved this win and I’m happy we won against good opponents.”

Meanwhile, Jwaneng coach Ovis Radipotsane was sympathetic with the way his team lost the match and praised them for their effort, considering the club’s domestic league has been suspended since early last year.

“Let me thank my players for how they played this game. If you know about Galaxy you will know that we are having problems with the league. Its been 12 months now without playing competitive football. So, the guys are not fit, that’s why they ended up playing for 70 minutes and after that, they were punched out,” the Galaxy coach explained.

“The other issue is that I only had five days with the team, so I couldn’t build, but it’s very difficult to play a good team like Orlando Pirates with those quality players. They had an advantage over us, otherwise pound-forpound, we tried to match them until the guys got tired,” added Radipotsane.

Pirates and Galaxy meet this coming weekend for the second leg at the Orlando Stadium, though that game really should be a formality for the Buccaneers carrying such a big advantage after the away leg.