Orlando Pirates coach Julio Leal says his side’s exposure to a team like Tottenham Hotspur has readied them for the challenge of African Champions League football.
|||Julio Leal believes Orlando Pirates’ two meetings with Tottenham Hotspur in the Vodacom Challenge made perfect preparation for their African Champions League bid this season.
Leal’s comments suggest that the Buccaneers, having won a domestic treble last season under Ruud Krol, are now desperate to prove themselves in a continental showpiece that has not proved a happy stomping ground for South African clubs.
Pirates were the last side from this country to win Africa’s premier club tournament, way back in 1995.
“It was good to have one more opportunity to play Tottenham, to give the players more international exposure. We are going to play the Champions League, and to play Tottenham twice, with different systems, was wonderful,” said Leal.
Bucs were beaten 3-0 by Spurs in the Challenge final on Saturday afternoon, leaving Pirates’ new Brazilian coach to rue a spate of missed chances in the first half. “We did well in the first half, and were in a condition to apply our style,” Leal explained.
“We were playing against a big team with some of the best players in the world. Before their first goal we had four or five opportunities to score.”
Indeed, with Tlou Segolela in sparkling form, the Buccaneers ran the Spurs defence ragged early on. Thulasizwe Mbuyane, for one, back in the Pirates line-up, missed two glorious opportunities to give Pirates the lead, before Dutch international Rafael Van Der Vaart struck with a second sumptuous free kick in the space of a few days.
“When the goal came, I think we felt emotional, we went a little down, and we tried (again) only in the second half.
“We wanted to put all the pressure on in the first 15 minutes (of the second half), and then replace players. But their second goal came before the 15 minutes were up, and it made it very difficult for us.”
Pirates’ defence was caught square as Van Der Vaart broke the offside trap and beat Senzo Meyiwa at the second attempt, with a deft lobbed finish.
Even then, as Leal rang the changes, Pirates kept attacking, and were awarded a penalty when Tlou Segolela’s cross was adjudged to have been handled by Spurs defender Sebastian Bassong. But Segolela hit the post from the spot, and, as Leal observed, Pirates were “punished with a third goal”.
Gareth Bale crossed for Jermain Defoe to turn in at the back post.
“Overall it was good,” observed Leal, however. “We observed Juju (Mbuyane) for the first time, the combination was good with our striker Drogba (Bongani Ndulula), and it is a point at which to start the new season.”
Leal did play very similar starting line-ups in all three games of the Vodacom Challenge, with Mbuyane the only change yesterday from last Thursday’s derby. But the coach believed he had seen enough of his complete squad, with Lucas Thwala at last getting some game time, though Benson Mhlongo and Moeneeb Josephs remained on the bench. “Moeneeb Josephs is still recovering. Lucas played and only Benson didn’t get an opportunity,” said Leal.
“We did what we should have done. We played 18 players in the first game against Tottenham, and we did enough to win the derby and qualify for the final. Moeneeb still has three weeks to prepare (for the start of the league) and we have to give him a chance to prove his condition, because we know he is one of the best in the country.”
In that time, Leal will also decide where to trim his squad, and on any new signings he wishes to bring in.
“We have 31 players and I’d like to reduce that to 28. And we need two or three reinforcements … to play in five competitions, we have to improve a little more the shape of the team, decreasing it numerically, but increasing the quality.”
As for Harry Redknapp, he and his Spurs side left the country on Saturday night, but the Tottenham coach departed hugely impressed with the quality he has seen in the domestic game.
“I’ve been very impressed with the standard of the players. They are well coached, well organised. It’s much better than I ever expected, they play to a very high standard,” he said.
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/bucs-primed-for-champions-league-1.1105129
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