MIHLALI BALEKA
Tshegofatso Mabasa is reaping the rewards of leaving Orlando Pirates as a boy and returning to the club as a man, having now become a key piece of the puzzle.
Mabasa has had the best conversion rate in domestic football this year, scoring eight goals in 12 games across all competitions for Pirates since returning from a loan spell at Moroka Swallows. Mabasa recently admitted that he used the time away from the club to work on himself spiritually, physically and emotionally to play for Pirates again.
After all, being part and parcel of the club is more than a job for him. It’s home. This is a club that he wanted to play for the moment he cut his football teeth. And such has been the importance of his move to the club, he’s not doing it for himself anymore but for his dearly departed loved ones Lesego and Lebo as well.
The 27-year-old has the names of the late staunch Pirates fans written on a piece of a white cloth covering his left wrist, which he kisses with every passing goal. Mabasa is the league’s joint- top goalscorer (11) with Mamelodi Sundowns striker Lucas Ribeiro. His contribution has been a welcome boost for coach Jose Riveiro.
“He’s one more piece in our structure – and an important one – right now,” said Riveiro, after Mabasa led them to a third win in a row on Saturday.
“I am happy when the players – especially the forwards – are scoring. He’s getting responsibility up front and offering possibilities for the other players.
“He’s helping us to be aggressive in our attack. He’s the first defender of the team when we don’t have the ball. He’s contributing to the role we assigned for the No 9.”
Mabasa cannot do it alone, though. He needs to feed off the supply of the players around him, while returning the favour occasionally. Riveiro, though, has lauded non-starters such as Zakhele Lepasa, Kermit Erasmus and Souaibou Marou for pushing Mabasa at training.
“He’s also doing well because the ones who are not playing recently, they are training well, putting pressure on him because they want to be there as well,” he said.
“In the end only one can go to the field, but this is a team, and everyone is making things possible. The ones who are playing have all our support, including him.”
Pirates have such a huge talent pool at their disposal that Riveiro is confident anyone from the 38-member squad deserves a spot in the starting line-up. Alas, only 11 can play. Riveiro has done his best to manage his squad in matches, though – mitigating risks by withdrawing players who are on yellow cards and replacing them with like-for-like personnel.
“Depending on the role, sometimes we want to play safe. We know about the difficulties sometimes of finding ourselves with one man down,” he said.
“Having the names we have on the bench makes things simpler for us. It’s not like the level of the team is going to drop if we are forced to make a substitution.”
Riveiro needs everyone fully focused and ready to compete at this stage of the season, given that there are boxes they need to tick in the next few weeks. And so far so good. Pirates have worked as they are on course to finish second in the DStv Premiership and defend the Nedbank Cup crown.
Pirates will want to bolster their second-place aspirations by beating Royal AM away on Sunday. Hence Riveiro says there’s no time for them to rest on their laurels.
“We have Royal AM, three days later we must travel to Cape Town. And after that we have the semi-final (away to Chippa United),” Riveiro said.
“There’s no time to feel ‘so great’ right now. Football is about the next game. And the next game is against Royal AM.”