Orlando Pirates will be looking to hand Marumo Gallants their first defeat of the DStv Premiership season when the two teams meet at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.
Cape Town — Orlando Pirates will be looking to hand Marumo Gallants their first defeat of the DStv Premiership season at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday (kick-off at 7.30pm).
Bahlabane Ba Ntwa have yet to be beaten under Romain Folz, who took over the reins from Dan Malesela during the off-season, although they haven’t won any games either.
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The Polokwane outfit twice squandered the lead against Royal AM on Sunday to be held to a 2-2 draw, which was their fourth one-point haul of the campaign.
Gallants also shared the spoils with Stellenbosch, Richards Bay and Golden Arrows, leaving them 11th in the league standings, two points outside the top eight.
☠️ 🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛 🚨
🏆 #DStvPrem
⚽️ @orlandopirates vs @_Marumogallants
📆 Wednesday, 24 August 2022
🏟 Orlando Stadium
🕢 19h30
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— Orlando Pirates FC (@orlandopirates) August 22, 2022
Folz was pleased with the two goals they scored, although he acknowledged there remains plenty of work to be done in both attack and defence as he looks to stamp out mistakes.
“We have a problem in the offensive department. It’s getting better, we were able to score twice, we had a chance to score at least a couple of times more,” the French tactician said.
“Yes, defensively we concede two but I think it’s more individual mistakes than collective errors. It’s something that we can easily fix with the video work we’re going to do this week.
“So I’m very proud of the boys, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the win but it’s the positive kind of frustration, knowing that you could and should have done better in terms of results.”
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The Buccaneers have recorded two wins, two draws and one defeat from their opening five matches since Jose Riveiro was appointed head coach.
Pirates trail league leaders AmaZulu by two points in third place after Sunday’s goalless stalemate with SuperSport United in Pretoria.
They failed to convert a whole host of chances against Matsatsantsa, but Riveiro is convinced that the goals will come once the players build up their confidence in front of goal.
“We spoke about this many times in the previous games, the goal is the most difficult thing to do in this game, it will come,” the Spaniard said.
“It’s a question of confidence and sometimes a bit of luck, even a rebound, score and get the advantage and you feel much more comfortable with the other attacks.
“But the anxiety when you see that you don’t convert, time is running (out), sometimes is playing against us. We need to be a bit calmer, more precise in the last minutes and sometimes take an extra touch when we’re in the box to prepare the next action, so it’s going to come.”
The Soweto giants have a good record against Gallants, boasting two victories and two draws from their previous four top-flight encounters, with their only loss coming in the Nedbank Cup last season.
