War between AmaZulu and Pirates
It will be war on the football pitch on Saturday when Orlando Pirates face off against AmaZulu FC in the first of two semifinals in the 2010 Telkom Charity Cup at Soccer City.
The match is scheduled to kick off at 10am and will be shown on SuperSport channel 204.
The Buccaneers will be going into the match on a high following their friendly 1-0 win over the same club earlier this week. It was a closely fought affair with both teams giving their all to have the upper hand going into Saturday’s semifinal.
In the end only a single goal separated them and it, ironically, was scored by KwaZulu-Natal born striker Siphelele Mthembu.
Following his side’s win over their upcoming opponents the young striker was confident his side could repeat the feat, “It was great to score against AmaZulu and I plan on doing the same when we face them on Saturday.”
Furthermore, Pirates will be looking to defend their Telkom Charity Cup title for the third consecutive time. The first hurdle in that goal is AmaZulu, but Mthembu admits his side is confident going into the one day tournament. “We have been working hard in pre-season and we know we have what it takes to defend our title.”
“First things first though. We have to beat AmaZulu. We respect them but we are definitely going to beat them,” said the exciting young Buccaneers striker.
Sadly, on the team news front for Pirates, both Lucas Thwala and Katlego Mashego have been ruled out of this weekend’s action.
Thwala has been given time off after spraining his ankle during a training session earlier in the week and Mashego is missing the event due to a suspected broken toe.
Although AmaZulu were unable to find the back of the net in the friendly against the Buccaneers earlier this week, one man who will be looking to change that fact on Saturday is Usuthu striker Dumisani Ngwenya.
“I am looking to wipe the smiles from Pirates faces when I score on Saturday,” said the striker. “We shouldn't struggle at all against any team. They will make it. We not only want to set the pace for the upcoming season, we also want to win the cup.”
The last time the two sides met in this competition was back in 1999 under the guidance of Russian coach Victor Bondarenko. On that day the Soweto-based club marched on to a comfortable 3-1 victory and went on to lift the trophy after beating Ajax Cape Town 3-0 in the final.