Orlando Pirates are at Mbombela Stadium tonight eager to put pressure on runaway leaders Kaizer Chiefs by beating their hosts Black Aces in the day’s only Absa Premiership match.
With the rest of the league matches taking place tomorrow, the Buccaneers have a chance to reduce Amakhosi’s 10-point lead at the top of the table by three – albeit for just one day. Stuart Baxter’s high-flying team host embattled Moroka Swallows at the FNB Stadium tomorrow night.
Pirates find themselves second on the 16-team table via a better goal difference from four other teams that are on 14 points from their eight outings.
Yet being within sight of their bitter rivals, who boast a 100percent record, should serve as motivation enough for Vladimir Vermezovic and his team to give it their all to bring back maximum points from their trip to Mpumalanga.
Their weekend’s 1-0 victory – courtesy of a late Daine Klate strike – over an ultra-defensive Free State Stars side will have lifted the confidence of a team that stuttered off the starting blocks in this new season.
Four wins from eight matches is not good going for a team nursing hopes of capturing the championship. And while it is early in the season, Pirates will know just how hard it will be to compete on two fronts when they start their continental campaign next year.
And it is for this reason that they will be keen to make sure that Chiefs don’t fly out of sight.
Prior to the two-week international break, Pirates had suffered back-to-back defeats against Chiefs in the MTN8 final and Chippa United in the league.
Vermezovic no doubt worked hard to get his team back on solid ground and was pleased to see them chalking up the three points at home.
What impressed the Serb even more was his team’s persistence and willingness to keep on searching for a goal against an outfit that seemed to have come to the match with the sole purpose of avoiding defeat.
“It’s very difficult playing against teams that come into the match to defend all the time,” Vermezovic said after the match. “It is part of football that you find teams that play with this kind of strategy. It was important that we continued attacking them.”
That they did and were rewarded when Klate scored after 72 minutes.
Yet against Aces, they come up against a side that is unlikely to sit back and try to absorb pressure as Stars did at the weekend.
Clive Barker’s team are fresh from a good 3-2 win at Swallows and, being at home, will fancy their chances of overcoming the traditionally revered Buccaneers.
Ever insatiable for success “The Dog” was lamenting his team’s failure to put more past a hapless Swallows side that is fast beginning to look like relegation candidates: “Had we taken our chances I think we could have scored even more goals than we did. I believe we deserved to win.”
Should Aces play as attacking a game they did in Dobsonville and Pirates persist with their open play, tonight’s match should be a humdinger with goals aplenty. - The Star