Sekhukhune United assistant coach Paulus Masehe believes his side can take encouragement from their performances against Orlando Pirates, despite losing to the same opponents three times in seven days.
Pirates completed a clean sweep of the three-match sequence with a 3-0 victory in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-final at Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.
The result followed a 2-0 league win for the Buccaneers at the same venue four days earlier. Pirates had also won the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final 1-0 at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium the previous Saturday.
Although Sekhukhune were beaten in every meeting, Masehe pointed to improvements in possession, attacking movement and chance creation across the three matches.
“The aspect that I think we did well from the first match against Pirates in the first leg [of the MTN8] is how we controlled possession of the ball and how we penetrated them and created some chances although they weren’t that many,” Masehe explained.
The assistant coach said Sekhukhune had been more effective in the league fixture, when they created a greater number of opportunities against a Pirates side that ultimately secured another victory.
“In the league game we created a lot of chances … even today (Saturday) it was evident in the second half that we did much better. We created a lot of chances and we also had to take the risk of committing numbers forward.”
Sekhukhune’s willingness to push additional players into attacking positions produced more opportunities after the interval, but it also left them exposed as they attempted to recover from a difficult first half.
Pirates took advantage of their opportunities, with Thapelo Mokobodi, Ghampani Lungu and Kamogelo Sebelebele all finding the net in the decisive second-leg victory.
The win sent Orlando Pirates into the MTN8 final for a fifth consecutive season. They have also won the competition in each of the past four editions, underlining their sustained dominance in the tournament.
For Sekhukhune, the result ended their latest attempt to progress through the MTN8 semi-finals, but Masehe maintained that the three matches had provided useful evidence of what his team could do against the reigning competition specialists.
His assessment was based on the contrast between the opening cup meeting, when Sekhukhune created relatively few openings, and the subsequent matches, in which they produced more chances and showed greater attacking intent.
The challenge for Sekhukhune now is to turn those encouraging passages of play into results after a demanding week in which they faced Pirates three times and conceded defeat on every occasion.
