Orlando Pirates boss Ouaddou demands more from Bafana Bafana stars after AmaZulu draw

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has challenged the club’s players who featured for Bafana Bafana at the recent World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada to improve their performances after returning from international duty.

Ouaddou said he had yet to see enough from most of his World Cup players since the beginning of the season, following Pirates’ 1-1 draw with AmaZulu at Kings Park Stadium in Durban.

The result was Pirates’ second league match of the campaign. Although the coach was frustrated by the points dropped, he singled out goalkeeper Sipho Chaine and defender Nkosinathi Sibisi for praise after their displays against AmaZulu.

“My worry is, when am I going to recover the international players fully? When will they be fully fit? Today I saw a fantastic game from Sibisi … he was top, he played his role today,” Ouaddou said.

“Sipho Chaine also played his role, but since the start of the season I am playing with one or two men down, so when am I going to recover them?

“I hope it happens as soon as possible because there’s an emergency since every point is very important.”

Eight Orlando Pirates players were part of the Bafana Bafana squad at the recent global tournament: Chaine, Sibisi, Kamogelo Sebelebele, Thalente Mbatha, Oswin Appollis, Evidence Makgopa, Tshepang Moremi and the now-departed Relebohile Mofokeng.

Moremi scored Pirates’ goal in Durban, while Sebelebele gave away the penalty from which Thando Ngwenya equalised for the hosts. Makgopa and Mbatha were unavailable for the match because of knee injuries.

Ouaddou said Pirates could not afford to wait months for their international players to regain full fitness, warning that the team needed them to contribute immediately.

“I need my international players to land on our planet … The World Cup in the US is finished. I need them to come to the party because in football you can’t wait … If we can wait for them until December for them to be fully fit, that’d be a problem,” the Pirates coach bemoaned.

Despite the draw, Ouaddou was not overly concerned that his side had failed to take all three points. He expects AmaZulu to make life difficult for many of their opponents at Kings Park Stadium.

“Look, I am not too worried about the fact that we will catch up the points that maybe we lost here, but again not many teams are going to win here against AmaZulu because they are a very good team with good players. I can guarantee you that not many teams are going to win here.”

Pirates will return to league action against Chippa United at Kings Park Stadium on Sunday, with kick-off scheduled for 15:00.