Ouaddou Hails Pirates’ Mental Strength After MTN8 Survival

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou praised his players’ mental strength after they were forced to dig deep to overcome a difficult MTN8 quarter-final encounter against Durban City.

The Buccaneers eventually secured a 2-1 victory on Saturday after Gamphani Lungu scored the decisive goal in the 120th minute to send Pirates through to the next round.

Pirates took the lead before half-time when Patrick Maswanganyi converted from the penalty spot after Tshepang Moremi was fouled inside the box by Brooklyn Poggenpoel. The Durban City midfielder, who had already been booked earlier in the match, received a second yellow card for the foul and was consequently sent off.

Despite being reduced to 10 men, Durban City continued to give Pirates a difficult contest and eventually found an equaliser in the second half, forcing the match into extra time.

Ouaddou believes the Buccaneers’ ability to deal with such difficult moments is a reflection of the mental preparation they have been doing in training.

“Yeah, you know, in this kind of game, as I said before, the cup matches are all the time tough because the players, the teams play a little bit more than tactics and technique,” he said.

“You have to go and bring something deep in your mind, in your heart, and they play with the heart. It’s always like that in every country.

“But for us, the way that we are training, and especially the way that I’m seeing football, in training I’m not only training the phases of the game. I try sometimes to push my players mentally and to try to have some response for this kind of game.

“Everything that we are doing in training is all the time trying to match the reality of the match, what can happen in the match, all the scenarios that can happen in the match, either tactically, but mentally as well.

“And when I say mentally, it’s working physically over the limit. I can just give you an example.

“If I have to work the interval training, if I announce maybe two blocks of six minutes, I’ll see which players can resist beyond that.

“So, it’s these kinds of things that you have to add in your periodisation, in the way that you are training, because when you are training a group, you are not only training players, you are training the mind as well.”

The Moroccan mentor also reflected on how Pirates managed to overcome the challenge posed by a resilient Durban City side despite having a numerical advantage for much of the match.

“Yes, it was, like I said before the press conference, that it would be a very strong game,” he added.

“We know that usually MTN8 Cup matches are all the time difficult, and we have seen it. We went until extra time to be able to win that game. We started quite well.

“We wanted to impose our superiority from the beginning of the match. I think our boys set the tempo. They really wanted to quickly beat this team.

“We know that last season when they came here, they really troubled us because they were very solid and aggressive. And we could have maybe killed the game earlier, but unfortunately we went until extra time.

“I think the injury to our captain, Nkosinathi Sibisi, imbalanced the team a little bit because we had to adjust, and I think the boys reacted well after the goal.

“We tried to bring a little bit of freshness with the players we introduced, and I was impressed.

“They brought some speed and some energy into the game. So, I think it’s good news for us to know that we have some players on the bench who can come and impact the game.

“Okay, I think we are going to continue the story for the second round. We are going to focus on the next game in the league, but I think it’s a good thing, it’s a good thing for our boys. Well done, and well done to them.”

Pirates will now turn their attention to the Betway Premiership, where they face AmaZulu in their next league encounter at Kings Park Stadium on Wednesday.

Both sides will be looking for their second victory of the league campaign after winning their opening matches last weekend. Pirates defeated Milford, while AmaZulu also claimed maximum points against Stellenbosch.