Johannesburg – Roger de Sa will hope his luck changes for the better when Orlando Pirates meet Platinum Stars in the Telkom Knockout final on the seventh of next month, after the Buccaneers made it three finals in a row following their defeat of SuperSport United here on Saturday.
De Sa’s men have lost two finals in the past three months, but following their extra-time win over SuperSport at Lucas Moripe Stadium, the Pirates coach reiterated he was “tired of silver medals” and would love a first title more than a year after joining the club.
“I hope it’s third time lucky for us,” he said. “It’s good that we have made another final and it would be better if we win it this time.”
But in Platinum Stars, Pirates face a solid side who not only lost the league championship by one point last season, but also have created history of their own by reaching two cup finals in succession. Dikwena beat Pirates in a top-eight final in September, and will be confident of a repeat when they make the trip to Mpumalanga a week on Saturday.
Commenting in the aftermath of the weekend’s 2-1 win over SuperSport, De Sa said he didn’t mind who he faced in the final, although he did acknowledge Pirates had beaten Kaizer Chiefs – who lost to Stars – whereas they had lost a cup to Stars.
“It doesn’t really matter in a final. Whoever you face, you have to do better than them. But facing Stars again would be sort of a grudge match. We’d want revenge, for sure.”
One thing that Pirates showed in their semi-final win over United was cup pedigree.
They conceded as early as the 14th minute to Mame Niang’s headed goal, but from the moment Oupa Manyisa drew them level in the second half, they never looked back.
In extra-time, when their legs were expected to tire quickly in cloudy but humid Tshwane conditions due to a hectic programme, Bucs were again dominant, able to find the winner through the excellent Andile Jali, who was named Man of the Match.
“We’ve played a lot of games, but fatigue is not a problem for us. We are used to this. It’s like someone who starts work at 6am everyday … they will get used to it.
“But I do feel for teams like SuperSport, who’ve had a lot of stop-starts this season. Something like that can clearly affect their momentum,” De Sa said.
SuperSport, indeed, played only in the opening half of Saturday’s encounter, and were indebted to substitute ’keeper Rowen Fernandez, who kept Matsatsantsa in the game with splendid saves to ensure the match went into extra-time.
Fernandez replaced Ronwen Williams early in the match, and Cavin Johnson may have to put his faith in the veteran for a while. “I’m not sure how long he (Williams) will be out for. It was a freak accident. He injured himself while kicking the ball. But Fernandez did really well after coming in.”
Johnson attributed his side’s loss to Pirates’ time-wasting tactics. “When you’ve played in the African Champions League, you have the intelligence to do these things. They (Pirates) know how to manage the time. I guess they saw when Al Ahly were leading, nine of their players started going to ground.”
While SuperSport will be without Williams when they host Ajax Cape Town tomorrow in a league match, Pirates will travel to Maritzburg United on Wednesday minus Rooi Mahamutsa. “He dislocated his shoulder, but we don’t know yet how long he’ll be out for,” explained De Sa of defender Mahamutsa, who was replaced by Lucky Lekgwathi at the weekend.
The Star