Milutin played deft hand to win
Bucs technical team ran rule over Chiefs’ tactics
Orlando Pirates’ match strategy in winning the Soweto derby against Kaizer Chiefs looked watertight‚ and it is easy to believe coach Milutin Sredojevic’s assertion that Bucs’ technical team went through Amakhosi’s game model with a fine-toothed comb.
Chiefs‚ as had been expected under the attack-minded Giovanni Solinas‚ threw everything forward for the first 20 minutes of the Absa Premiership matchup at FNB Stadium‚ opening the scoring through Khama Billiat in the 15th minute.
But Pirates’ response was impressive‚ earning a penalty‚ taken by Justin Shonga and saved by Itumeleng Khune‚ then striking via Innocent Maela (29th) and Vincent Pule (32nd).
After Bucs had largely shut out the second half‚ the postmortem could be that overall they had the better game plan and structure‚ and had the answers to almost everything Chiefs tried on the afternoon.
“It’s a match that brings the country to a standstill in a country that has so much pressure and tension,” said Sredojevic.
“A match that can make or break you.
“So having that in mind our job throughout the week was to properly prepare, so whatever we did in the training sessions was mirrored in the performance in front of that [87‚000] attendance.
“The technical team felt‚ before the match‚ like teachers or lecturers to our players, who have an exam in front of an audience.
“And we were fully aware of what the exam would bring‚ going into the deepest possible details‚ preparing them theoretically to know every detail about what to do in certain situations.
“Trying to make them mentally strong and physically fit to last from start to end. Making them technically effective and tactically competitive – the most important.”
Sredojevic said Pirates continuing to attack after Khune’s penalty save, showed his players had mental strength.
“This [penalty miss] could have served as an injection of motivation to the opponents‚ and to us‚ we could have cracked them mentally‚” the coach said.
“However‚ showing the mental strength‚ we immediately answered. We did not lose our heads.”
The technical team felt like teachers or lecturers to our players