Interview
Casric boss gives insights on victory over Pirates
Photo: Grant Pitcher/ Gallo Images
Casric Stars head coach Bucs Mthombeni has provided an insight on how his team masterminded a famous victory over Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup Round of 16 on Saturday.
The Motsepe Foundation Championship side eliminated the Soweto giants following a 5-4 penalty shootout victory after the two teams were deadlocked for 120 minutes.
Mthombeni says their plan was to keep Pirates at bay for the opening 30 minutes, with a view of building on the clean sheet and take the match to extra time and subsequently penalties.
“I think the plan worked because we wanted not to concede a goal too early and I told the boys if Pirates can't score at least within 30 minutes, we'll just force the game to go to second half and second half we will just look if our plan worked,” he explained.
"And then after that we said to the boys, let's try to go to extra time. I think Pirates was the better team on the day and they had more opportunities than us. I think the goalkeeper saved us on the day and because penalties are luck, that's the reason we see ourselves where we are.
"We were against a good team and a team that is on form and just tough luck to Orlando Pirates. But actually our mandate was for us to focus more on the league, but if your plan works, you always receive it with importance.
The Casric boss delved deep into the game plan, revealing that the mandate was to nullify the influential duo of Patrick Maswanganyi and Relebohile Mofokeng.
“What impressed me most is to stick to the game plan because I went to FNB Stadium and I knew exactly what I'm going to face. I know Pirates can rotate the ball quick and use wingers and they are more comfortable on the ball and they play with quick transitions,” Mthombeni added.
"I told the boys that we must make sure that we deal correctly with Tito and we take care of Relebohile Mofokeng. If we can make sure that we are aggressive whenever Rele is on the ball - I think that was the plan, to close him to not even pass the ball forward.
"If you can see most of the time, even [Deano] Van Rooyen, we were forcing them to restart the build up from the back and I knew that [Deon] Hotto on the left is going to try to overlap. What I said to the boys, [Bafana] Nana is an athlete and Mofokeng has not been playing for long but he was developed by Pirates.
"I said boys, we need to make sure we are not going forward, we always have three rest defence at all times. I think the plan worked very well, but I respect Pirates and I know that the result today didn't come as per the coach's plan - I respect the coach