Ouaddou hails Pirates’ response after Durban City victory

Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou praised his players for producing one of their best second-half performances after beating Durban City 2-0 on Thursday night.

The Buccaneers secured the victory with two goals after the break, scored by Lebone Seema and Tshepang Moremi, and moved to within four points of the Brazilians.

Pirates struggled to impose themselves before half-time as Durban City’s aggressive approach caused them problems. Ouaddou admitted his side were fortunate to remain level at the interval, with goalkeeper Sipho Chaine making important saves.

“Look, I think we were a bit surprised by the aggressiveness of Durban but at the same time we had spoken about that, it’s their fighting spirit, they’re used to play like that so we were not comfortable in the first half to be honest,” Ouaddou told SuperSport TV.

“I think in the first half we deserved- Durban deserved to score at least 2-0 and thanks to Sipho Chaine that really saved the team and after we went into halftime and made some tactical adjustments.”

The Pirates coach said his team had expected Durban City to line up with a back four, rather than the back five they used, but changes made during the interval transformed the match.

“I think we were surprised by this back-five, we thought they would come with a back-four, but we made this adjustment and I think the second half was just fantastic to the referees. For me, one of the best second halves that we played since now,” he said.

Ouaddou was particularly pleased with the way Pirates implemented the attacking changes, which included playing forward more often and exploiting spaces between the lines.

“The players played the football we want, playing forward, -between the lines, we found the third-man running between the space and we scored in the set-pieces, so the second half was really perfect and credit has to be given to the boys,” he continued.

He also credited his coaching staff for identifying the problems quickly and helping to develop an effective response during the game.

“We have a fantastic staff; we have some guys that are able to bring their views as well. We have staff on the bench, quickly we saw what went wrong in the first half and we make this adjustment in the second half with all the technical staff and it was spot-on.”

The result came after Pirates had altered their approach at half-time, with Ouaddou saying the players’ reaction offered encouragement for future matches.

“The players really answered to this adjustment and we saw with the changes in the second half and we have to continue like that. It was really a good answer for me because I was looking for this kind of quality football in the second half and I hope we going to continue like that,” Ouaddou said.