Mokwena refuses to blame Pirates players for Maritzburg draw
Orlando Pirates coach Rulani Mokwena feels his players are giving him the challenge to fix the mistakes within the team by making life difficult for themselves in each game they play.
Orlando Pirates assistant coach Rulani Mokwena (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
Pirates played to a goalless draw with Maritzburg United on Tuesday night and again had to finish the game with 10 men after captain Happy Jele was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence.
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Speaking after the game, Mokwena insisted that he could not demand more from his players after the fine performance they put up against the Team of Choice.
“We like to make it difficult, my middle name is Mlungisi [meaning; the one who fixes], so I think sometimes the players try and test how much I can fix certain things, so it’s a test to see how difficult they can make things for me, but we keep going and we try to fix,” Mokwena told SuperSport TV.
“First chance in the first half with Kabelo Dlamini one-on-one with the goalkeeper and of course [Richard] Ofori makes a very good save and well deserved Man of the Match [award] because he made a lot of top saves to keep them in the game.
“We created a lot of chances and that chance of [Justin] Shonga that hit the crossbar, I still have to analyse and check but from where I was sitting, maybe not the whole circumference [of the ball] crossed the line but from where I’m sitting it looks like it’s over the goal-line but I stand to be corrected, I don’t know.”
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