The Orlando Pirates ”Ship of Misery” continued to sink into a sea of soccer oblivion at Ellis Park on Saturday night as The Buccaneers tumbled out of the Telkom Knockout competition while going down 1-0 to Cape Town’s never-say-die Santos.
And the elimination at the quarterfinal stage from an event boasting a mouth-watering winners’ prize of R4,25-million followed the same uncanny path as most of Pirates’ other setbacks this season in the Vodacom Challenge, the African Champions League, the Supa8 tournament and the Premier League — with woefully inept finishing the main bugbear.
The vital solitary goal of the game was scored for Santos in the 68th minute after Eleazer Rodgers had come onto the field almost prophetically as a late substitute to out-jump the Pirates’ defence and beat out-of-position goalkeeper Avril Phali with a loping header.
Although Pirates dominated possession, enjoyed a blanket-like territorial advantage and squandered numerous chances, with Jabu Mahlangu and substitute Lelo Mbele the most glaring culprits, it was the lanky Rodgers who produced another near-scoring effort of note in the 86th minute, which Phali this time did exceptionally well to tip over the crossbar.
Pirates came desperately close to scoring midway through the opening half when Santos’s Sebastian Bax, who later went off the field injured, miscued a clearance, with the ball ricocheting off the crossbar into play.
After consultation with his assistant, referee Ace Ncobo ruled it was not a goal — and TV replays afterwards proved it was the right decision.
An 11 000 crowd made up almost entirely of Pirates supporters descended on Ellis Park in high spirits, but many of them left in tears.
One of the distraught mourners on the terraces eased his pain by reading from a bible and another proceeded to make phantom calls from a landline phone that was unconnected to any power point.
And, through it all, Santos warded off the pressure on and off the pitch with stoic defending, cool heads and a refusal to bow to the pressure — although coach Roger de Sa almost blew his top when four minutes of optional time was decreed at the end. — Sapa