Ndah ready, Van Rooyen out

By Benjamin Nyirenda

Johannesburg, South Africa

With Orlando Pirates preparing for the MTN 8 semifinals second leg against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has provided an update on the injuries to his squad.

Speaking to the media during a press conference at the PSL Offices in Johannesburg ahead of the game, Ouaddou said that Deano van Rooyen, who was injured against Stellenbosch FC on Wednesday, is still waiting for the test results from the medical team, while defender Olisah Ndah is progressing well in his recovery.

“I have an idea, but we don’t have definitive feedback from the medical department. What I can tell you is that he will not be available, but we still don’t know what he has because he has gone through some exams and go deep into his injury.

About the question of Olisa Ndah.He is training. He is coming back. Things are going well and hopefully, I think in a few days he will be back with us in the group,” Ouaddou told the media.

Talking about the match against Sundowns and that Sundowns have scored an away and on whether that will give them an advantage or not, Ouaddou said they won’t go to Pretoria to just sit back and wait for the opposition.

“The magic of the cup matches is that if you want to go through to the final, you cannot just go to Mamelodi Sundowns to sit. Of course, it will be a very tactical game for sure but for them as well. It is a lot of questions.

But for sure, what I can tell you, it will be a fantastic game for the fans. It is a very important event in South Africa, so I hope the stadium will be packed again and the two teams will play some nice football.

It will be a fantastic event again. We had a great first game in the first leg. Two important teams on the continent. I think the two teams played fantastic football in the first leg.

We finished 1-1, but you know, in the cup games, sometimes it is a question of mentality. We want to go to that game with a lot of ambitions,” he said.

The coach added that he thinks his team has the qualities to perform but they have to be ready for that game.

“We know that it will not be easy because we don’t play at home but we will try to find resources to go to pass through, we have a title to defend. Orlando Pirates were winning this cup so we will definitely go with a lot of ambitions to defend our title.

The boys are ready to perform. When we are preparing for every game, we are anticipating everything. We have an analysis department…very professional. We have seven people inside. They are working mornings, nights and are very committed to the club.

We try to have some information about the opponent. We try to get some clips for the players to give them some insight. Of course, we have the meetings with the staff to work, analyse the opponent, and afterwards we are preparing the strategy regarding the game we are going to play.

When we have prepared the plan, we try to implement it on the pitch with the players. More than that, you have to be careful about your tactical prioritisation because the principles that you want to be implemented in the game have to be aligned with what you want to do.

So, very important and you don’t have to forget as well the moment of loading the guys because when you are playing every three days, you have to be careful about the loads.

So, it is all these factors that you have to take into consideration as a coach in order to bring the best for the players and to give them the opportunity to perform during the weekend,” the Moroccan-born coach concluded.