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/ 10 October 2007
Bottom of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) log and booted out of the Telkom Knockout competition in the first round, Orlando Pirates’ woes continued when they were handed an effective R200 000 fine. ”Pirates were fined R150 000 on charges of crowd misbehaviour and bringing the league into disrepute,” PSL general manager Andrew Dipela announced on Tuesday.
Even with a new man at the helm in acclaimed former Platinum Stars coach Owen de Gama, the Orlando Pirates ship continued to flounder at Ellis Park on Wednesday night as the Buccaneers slumped to a 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat against Benoni Premier United after a dramatic Telkom Knockout game finished 1-1 after extra-time.
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/ 28 September 2007
In the 1980s an unknown midfielder-cum-striker, Owen da Gama, came off the bench for Moroka Swallows to score in a 2-1 victory in the Soweto derby against Orlando Pirates. Little did he know then that he would one day be the Bucs’ head coach.
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/ 14 September 2007
Orlando Pirates coach Bibey Mutombo says he is not the first Pirates coach to be put under pressure from the fans. Duh! Given that this is the club’s 70th anniversary and that it boasts millions of passionate and opinionated fans, it stands to reason there must have been one or two other coaches before Mutombo, whose governance of the team did not meet the supporters’ expectations.
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/ 13 September 2007
Expect a touch of sadness at Saturday night’s SAA Supa8 final between Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates at King’s Park Stadium in Durban — likely to be a highly charged, electric occasion. The close association both clubs had with late Sundowns player Gift Leremi will account for the lingering pall.
With a script as strange and uncanny as that penned by a fiction writer, Orlando Pirates secured a frenzied 2-1 extra-time victory over SuperSport United in the SAA Supa8 semifinal at Durban’s King’s Park Stadium on Thursday night, with much-maligned coach Bibey Mutombo emerging the unlikely hero.
Looking at Bibey Mutombo on the soccer sidelines and the resemblance between the Orlando Pirates coach and the sphinx of ancient Egypt is almost uncanny. And even amid the despair and downright indignation among many in the Buccaneers camp over some insipid performances this season, the coach remains inscrutable.