'There is another competition that we failed last season and for me, it's a really big, big target,' said the Pirates head coach.
Abdeslami Ouaddou wants his Pirates strikers to wake up with the Caf Champions League set to start very soon. Picture: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has warned his strikers that they need to come to the party as he targets Caf Champions League success in the new season.
Pirates’ solid start
Pirates have got off to a winning start to the new campaign, beating Milford FC in the Premiership and Durban City in the MTN8.
They needed extra time to beat City in a 2-1 victory, however and have yet to really spark in attack.
Ouaddou is clearly determined for his side not to rest on their laurels after winning the Premiership last season to complete a domestic treble.
Their one major disappointment last season was getting knocked out by FC St Eloi Lupopo in the final qualifying round for the Champions League group stages.
“We don’t have to forget that this season is very important for us,” Ouaddou told reporters after Thapelo Mokobodi’s last minute extra time penalty had secured the win over Durban City.
“It’s very, very important, we must confirm what we did last season. But more than that, there is another competition that we failed last season and for me, it’s a really big, big target. So I need my strikers to wake up quickly to help the team.”
Pirates’ next match comes this evening in the Premiership away to AmaZulu.
It remains to be seen if Norwegian striker Sebastian Petersen is available to make his Pirates debut against Usuthu.
Pictures coming out of the Pirates camp, however did show Pedersen training with his teammates. It does seem like the Buccaneers could do with the help of the 27-year-old centre forward, especially with Evidence Makgopa looking set to be out injured for some time.
Arthur Zwane’s AmaZulu won their first league game of the season at Stellenbosch but lost a topsy-turvy MTN8 quarterfinal 4-3 at home to Sekhukhune on Sunday.
Zwane – “We’ve got to redeem ourselves’
“Now we have Pirates, we’ve got to redeem ourselves,” Zwane told SuperSport TV after the loss to Babina Noko.
“It’s not going to be an easy one, and we’re playing against a Pirates team that won at the weekend.
“So we’ve got to make sure that now the players do the right things in terms of recovery, and they eat well and drink a lot of water, so that they can be fully recovered when the time comes.”
“We conceded four goals. It’s unlike us. We are not a team that does that easily, you know, conceding goals like this. And yeah, hopefully we will learn from this one and rectify those mistakes.”
