Sekhukhune United assistant explains early D’Angelo Kazeem substitution against Orlando Pirates

Sekhukhune United assistant coach Paulus Masehe said D’Angelo Kazeem had to be withdrawn before half-time because he was already booked and struggling to contain Orlando Pirates’ Sebelebele on the right wing.

Kazeem was replaced in the 36th minute of the MTN8 semi-final second leg, while the match was still goalless. Masehe, standing in for suspended head coach Cedric Kaze, said the decision was made to prevent Sekhukhune United from being exposed in that area and to avoid losing Kazeem to a second yellow card.

“We had to react as soon as possible because Kazeem was already on a yellow and he was struggling to contain Sebelebele on the right and we know for sure that Sebelebele was constantly going forward on the right-hand side so we had to protect him because we still need him, there’s a whole lot of games to be played,” Masehe said.

The decision came during a difficult week for Babina Noko, who had faced Orlando Pirates three times in seven days. Sekhukhune United lost all three matches, failed to score in each encounter and were eliminated from the MTN8 after a 3-0 defeat in the second leg left them 4-0 down on aggregate.

Masehe said the three matches had provided valuable lessons, particularly in dealing with an Orlando Pirates side that punished its opportunities.

“I will attribute that to a lot of lessons learnt in the three games, we played against a very good team that played very well in moments and that was clinical in the executions in those moments. That’s the lessons I will take from those games and also the character of the boys in all three games – second half we came back, we played much better, we created chances but still it wasn’t to be and it says to us we can still be able to produce chances then let’s go back and work on how to be clinical,” Masehe said.

Sekhukhune United changed their approach for the latest meeting after losing the previous two games against Orlando Pirates. Masehe said the team began with a different system and new attacking patterns, but the plan did not produce the desired result in the opening half.

“Like, I said it’s a game whereby we wanted to try – we had already played two games and lost all two games. It’s a game where we said ok let’s come up with a new system, a patterns of play, another approach where we thought it was going to work unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

“But second half, we went back into a 4-2-3-1 formation and it worked very well, we were able to create chances and able to defend even much better, we learnt a lot today and all the two matches we played against Pirates.,” he added.

Despite the elimination, Masehe pointed to Sekhukhune United’s improved second-half performance as a positive. The visitors created chances and defended more effectively after switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation, but they were unable to turn those opportunities into goals.

The three defeats against Orlando Pirates leave Sekhukhune United with a clear area to address, according to Masehe: maintaining their ability to create chances while becoming more clinical in front of goal.