Pitso: Playing City is not the same as facing Chiefs
the starting XI, a stance that has pushed the players to perform and allowed the introduction of new faces to move away from the generation that won six trophies in two years along with reaching the finals of the 2013 Caf Champions League and 2015 Caf Confederation Cup.
The club’s captain, Thabo Matlaba, picked up a suspension that saw him miss the match against Mamelodi Sundowns. Pirates played brilliantly without him and he hasn’t returned to the team since.
Innocent Maela, Gladwin Shitolo and Marshall Munetsi returned from their loan spells and their future was decided by themselves, with the technical team giving them a chance to prove their worth, what they didn’t consistently get in the past.
Maela and Shitolo have made the most of that chance. Now they are among the ever-presents in the club’s defence. The signing of Diamond Thopola and Phetso Maphanga will intensify the battle for places. Xola Mlambo’s arrival will strengthen their midfield.
But the Buccaneers’ biggest coup was announced yesterday, the signing of Zambian forward Augustine Mulenga. The forward’s presence should allow his countryman Justin Shonga to play in his preferred position as the supporting striker, instead of leading the attack. Shonga has already opened his account, with confidence and a familiar sight – he can only get better.
“All that you have seen on the field (including Shonga playing as the leading centre-forward) has been patiently planned with the deepest possible attention to detail. We were looking forward to get from him that No 9 (performance), because in the perking order he was high up which is why he started ahead of others,” Sredojevic said, giving a politically correct answer on whether the circumstances, the absence of a prolific No 9, forced them to play Shonga there or is this a position they plan to use him going forward.
That’s likely to change with the pieces of the puzzles slowly coming into place. But that doesn’t mean that the Buccaneers have arrived just yet. If the Buccaneers get maximum points against Ajax Cape Town tonight at Cape Town Stadium, they’d still be seven points behind their target of 40 points after 20 matches.
What will give Sredojevic confidence though is that the club continues to rise up from the ashes of last season to return where the Buccaneers belong, among the big boys and contesting for honours. NEW MAN AT PIRATES: Augustine Kabaso Mulenga of Zambia is the new major signing at Orlando Pirates, by far their biggest coup of the transfer window that closes tonight. PITSO MOSIMANE is unfazed by his team’s poor record against Cape Town City.
The Mamelodi Sundowns coach leads his charges to the Mother City on Friday for the Absa Premiership’s top-of-thetable clash against a side that has become somewhat of a hoodoo team for the Brazilians.
As recently as December, City beat Sundowns 1-0 at Loftus to bring their impressive seven-game unbeaten run, which had pushed Mosimane’s men to the top of the log, to a screeching halt, souring their Christmas break as a result.
“They scored that one goal from 25 percent ball position,” said Mosimane, “We played Kaizer Chiefs (the goalless draw at the weekend), and that was a big game, a Caf Champions League game. Our game against City is not as big.”
Mosimane suggested that Sundowns were again likely to enjoy dominance over Benni McCarthy’s City, a team they crippled in this January transfer window by luring away their talisman Aubrey Ngoma who was an unused substitute against Chiefs, but is fit to face his former teammates at Athlone Stadium.
City trail Sundowns by four points after 19 matches and have won all three league encounters against the Brazilians since being established last season after businessman John Comitis purchased the Mpumalanga Black Aces franchise and moved the club to Cape Town.
McCarthy’s side missed out on a chance to close the gap to just two points when Bloemfontein Celtic held them to a 1-1 draw a day following the stalemate between Chiefs and Sundowns at FNB Stadium on Saturday night.
Mosimane suggested he would revert back to a more aggressive approach at City, having employed cautions tactics against Chiefs at a venue where Sundowns had not been able to win in three seasons, an unwanted record which stretched to four by the end of the night. “I think Anele (Ngcongca) should be back to play in Cape Town because Thapelo Morena is still struggling. The game there, in terms of tactics and energy will not be the same,” Mosimane explained.
“I know you can say we lost to them (City) three times, but I think it was 75-25 percent when we lost to them.
“Yes, they won, but that game is not the same as the Chiefs game.”
City will still be missing the influence of their coach McCarthy on the bench as he is still serving a suspension. He was sent to the stands during the Cape Town derby.