Orlando Pirates legend Edward Motale (Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix)
With the resumption of the 2019/20 Premier Soccer League (PSL) season looming, former Orlando Pirates captain Edward “Magents” Motale says players can’t have any excuses not to perform.
Despite having not played competitive football for almost five months, due to the coronavirus which led to the season being paused in March, Motale believes players should be able to compete, having been given programs to train at home during the lockdown in the country.
“I understand that players have not played in a long time, but they were given proper training programs to follow at home. So, they should be able to play to their best ability,” said Motale.
“But again, in saying that, I think the games might be a bit slow. We might not get entertained as much as we want, but the level of competition should be high.”
Motale believes that the most disciplined team, with a strict manager who followed the players’ progress while training at home, will shine during the games.
“I call the last few games the battle of the disciplined because everyone was training at home. But at the end of the day it’s all up to the coach, how he was monitoring his players while they were training at home. That is very important.”
Since all the games will be played in Gauteng, the Buccaneers were drawn to play at Ellis Park Stadium as one of the Biological Safe Environment (BSE) for the remainder of the season.
Motale reckons that won’t affect Pirates in any way.
“It doesn’t matter where Pirates play, even if they were to play in Cape Town, it still wouldn’t make a difference,” he added.
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