Zinnbauer wants full focus
Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer admits their CAF Confederation Cup opponents Sagrada Esperança are something of a closed book for him as they struggled to get information on their first round opponents.
Pirates travel to Angola to face their opponents today, with the return leg in Johannesburg on January 6.
The Angolan league season is only set to start on Boxing Day, in between the two legs of the tie, and Zinnbauer admits it has been tough to scout a team that has not played competitive football since March.
Much has changed in the squad since then and Zinnbauer says they have had to feed off scraps of information.
“It is a trip close to Christmas and that is not easy for the players, maybe they want to spend their time with their families, but we are football players and we have to now concentrate fully on this game,” the German coach says.
“It is a long trip for us and it is not easy for the club to manage that. We have to fight for a point [draw] … or more. We are happy we can go to CAF now, it is Christmas time, but we have no gifts for our opponents, we have to fight.
“Esperanca have a very good team, they defend very well and they have also in the offence good players. We do not have 100% information about what they have done in the last few days, maybe they have signed new players.
“It is not so easy to get information about the club, they have no league at the moment, they have had a small tournament in the country.
“We have not 100% information about what they do and what players they have played. They have changed a lot.”
Pirates reached the final of the Confederation Cup in 2015 but lost 2-1 on aggregate to Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel.
Esperanca have met South African opposition before, defeating Ajax Cape Town 3-2 on aggregate in the 2016 Confederation Cup. Ajax won 2-1 in Angola, but then inexplicably lost the home leg 2-0. — SuperSport.