Cape Town - After back-to-back Dstv Premiership defeats, Orlando Pirates will be eyeing a return to winning ways in their match against hosts Cape Town City at Cape Town Stadium, Green Point, this afternoon (5.30pm).
In both defeats, Pirates held the upper hand at various stages of the games, but were unable to exploit their good fortunes. The team has often been goal-shy after finding their way into the striking zone.
One player who turned Pirates’ fortunes around is winger Monnapule Saleng. He has improved with every outing and scored five goals in nine appearances across all competitions. He will no doubt be singled out for attention by City’s defence.
He was Pirates’ best player against Sundowns last week and threatened to score twice, but goalkeeper Ronwen Williams denied him on both occasions.
The other player to impress against Sundowns was Ben Motshwari, the midfielder, who was making only his third start of the campaign after a lengthy injury-enforced lay-off. He was unlucky not to get off the mark after seeing his long-range strike hit the woodwork in the second half.
Motshwari, a fierce tackler, could impose himself in the midfield battles, and if he succeeds, City will battle to find their way into the final third.
Pirates have won just one of their past five games in the top-flight league and find themselves a massive 15 points adrift of the Brazilians in fifth position.
However, Spanish coach Jose Riveiro has not given up hope of chasing down Sundowns. He insists that anything can happen in a jam-packed fixture list for the remainder of the season.
“The game we played on Friday against Sundowns is not going to make a difference at the end of the season about the position on the table,” the Spaniard said.
“That’s why the league is so important because you must play well in other matches and go to Cape Town City and get three points and go to other games to try and get three points.
“Had we got three points against Sundowns, it would have helped us to close the gap; with one game less or one more than Sundowns we couldn’t and now it is a big difference.
“But the season is still long, we have played only 14 matches and there are still a lot of points to be played and we will continue to fight until the end,” he said.
The Citizens ended 2022 on a positive note after edging Royal AM 2-1 in Cape Town. However, they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Supersport United on Tuesday.
It was their third loss in five league encounters and City coach Eric Tinkler admitted his team’s ball retention was sub-par, which contributed to the disappointing result in their backyard.
“Maintaining possession is normally our strength,” he said. “Normally, by half-time, we have 300 successful passes and in this game, we only managed to get just over 200.
“Our possession stats were poor, passing accuracy was poor and that allowed Supersport to come more and
more into the game. We are supposed to be dominant at home in terms of possession, but that wasn’t the case.
“I am disappointed because we were playing with a fear of losing.”
City will be looking for an improved performance from Juan Zapata, the Colombian who started out in the midfield after being handed his debut against Supersport. Zapata, who only joined the club last month, figured for 74 minutes before he was replaced by Mduduzi Mdantsane.
City will expect more from the Venezuelan Darwin Gonzales. He has lost his scoring touch after netting three goals in the first month of the season.