All Stars ready to fight against Pirates

As much as All Stars respect Orlando Pirates as a big team, coach Sinethemba Badela wants his charges to play their normal football when they meet the Soweto giants in the last 3of the Nedbank Cup at the Wits Football Stadium on Saturday

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All Stars, formerly known as Cape Town All Stars, but now having moved to Gauteng, are one of the better teams in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, with the side currently third in the league.

The National First Division (NFD) side now has a chance to test themselves against Pirates, in a cup competition which Bucs last won back in 2014

Pirates will certainly not want to be knocked out in the first round by a lower division side, like what happened in 2013 when they were beaten by Maluti FET.

Going into this game, Badela knows exactly what to expect from the Buccaneers.

“Pirates before, they used to play a lot more in transition, but now they have very good midfielders and they are able to keep the ball a lot more,” said Badela.

Hard work

“So, we are going to work very hard without the ball. We know that it is not like in the championship, where we dominate most of the games and we have more of the ball,” said Badela during a press conference held at the PSL headquarters on Thursday.

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“We are going to tell our players to have freedom and that is the most important thing, to have freedom, be brave and try to play.

“Because they can’t all of a sudden say they don’t want the ball anymore. We are a team that keeps the ball and passes it around, so we have to do the same thing. But we know that it is going to be a lot more difficult because of the quality of the opposition.”