Orlando
Pirates was in a group of Champions but they came out of the group of Death
with victory which is an exceptional achievement but winning silver medal in
the competition as runner up to the champion of Champions Al Ahly was a bravery
and heroic achievement.
Orlando
Pirates has been honoured by Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, and
the President South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee SASCOC
Gideon Sam for an excellence performance in the African voyage which justified
that excellence is not negotiable and will never go unnoticed. Orlando Pirates
team of 2013 deserves to be bestowed with an order of Mapungubwe represents
ingenuity and excellence achievement in South Africa.
Orlando
Pirates was the most active club in South Africa as they already played 17
games in the past 4 months. However, the score card of the 17 games is
uninspiring. In the last 10 games of the African Championship since July 2013,
Orlando Pirates won 2, lost 3 and drew 5 games. Orlando Pirates managed to
score 9 goals and only conceded 8 goals due to the strong wall of Rooi
Mahamutsa and the company coupled with Senzo Meyiwa bravery.
In
the league games, Orlando Pirates only played 3 games, won 1, lost 1 and drew 1
which is a fair enough results taking into consideration excessive travelling
to Africa for CAF games. Fatigue and anxiety were behind this fairly impressive
form in the domestic league. Roger and the boys were always thinking about
African victory than to do well in the league based on the different performance
displayed in the two different competitions.
In
the MTN 8, Orlando Pirates was runner up to Platinum Stars after penalty
shoot-out with 1 victory and 3 draws in the tournament. The win and lose from
penalties are not considered as it is an acceptable and recognised
international standard to reflect only on either 90 minutes or 120 minutes of
the game results but penalties are part of the game.
The
overall score card to this end, reads 17 games, 4 Wins, 9 Draws and 4 Loses.
Despite bravery and heroic performance in the African Championship Cup, the overall
performance of the Orlando Pirates this season was less impressive. Roger de Sa
has an intimidating task to turn the table around. He has to motivate his boys
to overcome two consecutive defeats in the Finals.
Orlando
Pirates has already lost out in the PSL richest tournament MTN8 after
surrendered in the battle against Platinum Stars but in the African
Championship Cup, it was so near but yet so far. Orlando Pirates bow out of the
tournament as dignified and respectful failure without the main accolade.
Victory is winning and failure is losing according to the adopted principles of
football.
Roger
de Sa has to work on the players mental state to turn the table around in the
domestic league and cups. It is not going to be simple for players to easily overcome
the grief of defeats in the finals but they have to continue with the task at
hand and the first task assigned for Pirates is against SuperSport United in
the Telkom Cup this weekend at Lucas Moripe Stadium to turn the table around
but it would be a difficult task as United are very good playing at their own
backyard and only lost 1 game at home 2 months ago against the Dube Birds
(Moroka Swallows).
Despite
losing the two finals already, Roger de Sa and his boys need to switch on to
focus on the domestic league but they must remember that things work out best
for those who make the best of how things work out whilst Success is not final,
failure is not fatal but the courage to continue that counts. Success consists
of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
