Bucs focused after ?museum? setback

Orlando Pirates coach Julio Leal is plotting Sundowns’ fall in the MTN8 and he’s not interested in PSL results.

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Orlando Pirates coach Julio Leal has his challenges with the English language, but what wasn’t expected of him on Thursday was to use the word “museum” in reference to his team’s midweek results.

The Buccaneers’ loss to Maritzburg United, Leal said, belonged in a museum and won’t have a bearing on Sunday’s MTN8 semi-final second leg against Mamelodi Sundowns (Loftus Versfeld, 3pm).

“We have to focus on what’s ahead of us, not on a museum,” Leal said at Thursday’s press conference, drawing gasps of confusion from reporters who wondered what he was on about.

As it turned out, he was referring to Pirates’ shock defeat to Maritzburg, where Bucs took the lead through Benni McCarthy but then lost him to a red card and subsequently suffered their first defeat under the Brazilian.

Pirates take what seems a precarious 3-2 scoreline to Pretoria this weekend, but, while their coach has confined the midweek setback to the scrapheap of history, Sundowns coach Johan Neeskens was hoping his team’s destruction of Moroka Swallows will spur his men on to the outright victory they require to qualify for the September 10 MTN8 final.

“Our confidence is high after winning 4-0 (against Swallows). When you win like that, you’re happy to take on the next opponent. We know we have to win against Pirates by a single goal and that’s what we aim to do,” Neeskens said.

Sundowns paid a heavy price in last weekend’s first-leg clash for a negative system in the second half, which saw them concede two goals in the final 10 minutes to hand Pirates the advantage. “We conceded easy goals and I don’t know why we played like that in the second half,” Neeskens said. “But we have worked on that and mistakes have to be eliminated.”

Leal, on the other end, has to get rid of the mistakes of midweek, where Pirates could not protect a lead and were reduced to 10 men.

“It was difficult to play 70-percent of the game with one man short, but we have a good chance against Sundowns. A draw will be enough, but I never plan for a draw. We have confidence that we can win this game. We always play to win,” the Bucs trainer said.

Elsewhere, Kaizer Chiefs face Ajax Cape Town in the other semi-final. With the first leg ending 0-0, Vladimir Vermezovic believes neither team have an advantage in Saturday’s clash (Cape Town Stadium, 8.15pm).

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/bucs-focused-after-museum-setback-1.1125761

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