By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Gallo Images.
The Betway premiership defending champions Orlando Pirates secured a hard-fought 2-1 win over 10-man Kaizer Chiefs in a sold out affair at FNB stadium on Saturday.
Pirates were arguably fortunate to go into half-time level, with Chiefs enjoying much of the ball possession but could not use it to their advantage.
Chiefs first realistic chance came in the 13th minute when Mduduzi Shabalala send Wandile Duba through on goal, but the inform striker just shot straight at Sipho Chaine much to the relief of Pirates.
In the 24th minute, Amakhosi lost the ball deep in Bucs half; they were caught off position and eventually Thapelo Mokobodi found Yanela Mbuthuma who did well to score his first ever derby goal.
Mbuthuma’s goal was tight and could potentially have been disallowed due offside, but the absence of VAR may have worked in the Buccaneers’ favour.
A blunder by Chaine – who spilled what seemed like a harmless cross by Mfundo Vilakazi, in the 30th minute, allowed Pule Mmodi to pounce on a loose ball to make it 1-1 and ensure the teams went to the break even.
Before the start of the second half, the Buccaneers opted for a substitution and introduced the hard-running Ghampani Lungu ahead of Nkosikhona Ndaba with the Amakhosi unchanged.
Chiefs were then caught up high on pitch once again in the 55th minute. The move ended with Mokobodi setting up Tshepang Moremi to tap the ball into an empty net to make it 2-1.
The Glamour Boys intensified their tempo in search of second goal, creating several half-chances. But a massive opportunity fell to Duba in the 68th minute, for the second time he just couldn’t beat Chaine when one-on-one.
It got worse for Chiefs in the stoppages when Inacio Miguel was sent-off after a second bookable offence.
The 2-1 win for Pirates took them top of the table with 25 points from nine games, while Chiefs remained fifth in the log, 11 points behind the Buccaneers.
The analysis is very easy, in the first half we must kill this game, normally two-three zero because goal of Pirates we still have to review it was offside and maybe there’s a red card so if we score two or three goals we kill this game,” Chiefs Fernando Da Cruz told SuperSport after the game.
“And in the second half, in the last 20 minutes with our young players – you have a lack of experience – they don’t create chances because they have a lack of experience we give them more chances to score more goals. They created nothing, we offered them the offensive transition.”