Pirates eye win over minnows Maluti
Orlando Pirates will aim to avoid an early exit from the Nedbank Cup when they visit Maluti FET College at the Charles Mopeli Stadium on Saturday, kick-off at 3pm.
The Buccaneers already have their name on the trophy having won this cup in 2011 and look to make light work of their opponents from the SAFA Second Division in the Free State.
Roger De Sa’s men go into this game on a positive streak of 12 matches without a loss following their midweek league win over Platinum Stars, but coach Roger De Sa has stressed that they are taking this game seriously.
“We will be at full force on Saturday, no doubt about it,” said De Sa. “Losing to that team (Maluti) can dent our title aspirations because psychologically it might take a lot from the players.
“We will go into this match determined to win and for this, we will have to be at our best and bring in the players we believe can do the business on the day.
“We have been in great shape as far as winning games is concerned and we definitely want to get it going for as far as we possibly can.
“Playing small teams can be a bit tough because we do not know what to expect from them, but the boys are determined to win on Saturday and let us hope we do it.”
Maluti on the other hand are also having a great season in their own right as they are currently unbeaten in their division after 11 matches, winning seven and drawing four.
While reaching the Last 32 is already an enormous achievement for the club which was formed in 2008, their coach Morena Ramoreboli believes they can go a step further by sticking to their strengths.
“There’s nothing much that we are going to do differently, we started preparing for this game against Pirates a long time ago and things have gone very well,” said Ramoreboli.
“We are not going to give them too much respect or try to play a different game; we’ll try to be ourselves but with the right level of discipline.
“Everybody knows what Pirates are capable of and great players they have, but I believe we know what they are going to do. We just have to concentrate in every aspect of the game so that we can end up playing well at the end of the day.
“It’s also a morale-booster for us to be playing at home, because we’ll need our supporters to carry these boys. It’s also an advantage to play in this ground where we are more comfortable with our style of play.”
