Eric Tinkler and Orlando Pirates get the opportunity to appease their hard-nosed fans when they host Bidvest Wits at Orlando Stadium.
|||Having finally got that winning feeling domestically by accounting for the University of Pretoria in the Telkom Knockout last Friday, Orlando Pirates get the opportunity to show that they’re not all about continental football.
The Buccaneers, having had a great run that has seen them qualify for the Caf Confederation Cup final, have stuttered in the domestic league. A single win from five matches sees them positioned in the lower half of the 16-team table and, while pleased with their team’s showing on the continent, The Ghost would love to see that form transferred to the home front.
Eric Tinkler and his team get the opportunity to appease their hard-nosed fans when they host Bidvest Wits at Orlando Stadium tonight.
The clash is one of six matches taking place today, with a top-of-the-table encounter that sees Platinum Stars away to Mpumalanga Aces among those.
While the two sides are locked on 14 points each and the same goal difference (6), Stars are top by virtue of having scored more goals – 11 to Aces’ 10. Their meeting at Mbombela Stadium should prove intriguing, with Stars free from the worries of cup competition having been knocked out by Kaizer Chiefs, whom Aces face in the quarter-final on Saturday.
Does Muhsin Ertugral – the Aces coach – spare his team for the cup encounter with his former team or does he go all out to usurp Stars atop the table? Indications are the fiery coach will go for broke tonight if the intense hour and a half training session he had at the Italian Sports Club in Edenvale on Monday is anything to go by.
In Stars though, he will meet a team that is after a fifth successive win in the league and one eager to erase the memories of their cup hammering by Chiefs, making for arguably the clash of the night.
Not that there won’t be any fireworks at Orlando Stadium – far from it for clashes between Pirates and Wits are generally exciting.
And with Gavin Hunt still peeved at having had his team’s match against Jomo Cosmos postponed at the weekend due to Bafana Bafana’s late return from their Central American team, you can expect him to get his team to vent out his frustrations on Pirates.
A master of gamesmanship, Hunt has talked up the opposition describing Eric Tinkler’s team as “battle hard” and having “a game intensity we don’t have” in reference to Pirates having been active while Wits stood idle.
Funnily, Hunt said in an interview with the Citizen that his three Bafana players “have been away for two and a half weeks eating and drinking in hotels, just lying around” as he lamented the fact they “are not in a good condition”.
Not that he won’t be able to field a competitive squad against Pirates, for Wits have enough depth to go on without the trio.
In the other matches this evening, Bloemofontein Celtic return to the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium when they host Mamelodi Sundowns. Celtic are joint leaders with 14 points although they have played a match more than both Stars and Aces.
AmaTuks travel to Ajax Cape Town while Maritzburg United host Chippa United and Polokwane City begin life without Kosta Papic with a home match against Free State Stars.
All matches are scheduled to kick off at 7.30pm - The Star
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1PGfZ0G
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire