Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou is plotting against Marumo Gallants using inside knowledge of the players he previously worked with at Bahlabane ba Ntwa.
The Buccaneers clash with Gallants at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane in the Carling Knockout Cup final on Saturday with kick-off set for 18:00. Ouaddou joined Pirates in June following a three-month spell at the Bloemfontein-based side last season.
It was a stint which saw him being in charge of 12 matches and in the process recording five wins, four draws and three defeats. He coached the bulk of the players at Gallants who are now under Frenchman Alexandre Lafitte.
After joining the Soweto giants, Ouaddou took with him central midfielder Masindi Nemtajela who is now a Bafana Bafana player.
But earlier in the season, Lafitte gave the former Morocco defender a rude awakening about the squad he dumped for Gauteng. Gallants beat Pirates 2-1 in a Betway Premiership match to raise questions about Ouaddou’s capability to lead a giant like Pirates.
“It was our second game when we went to Marumo. I was not surprised by the way they played because I was coach there,” Ouaddou recalls about that defeat at Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloem.
However, the Buccaneers managed to pick themselves up and now lead the Betway Premiership standings. They are also facing the possibility of winning their second piece of silverware this season by clinching the Carling Knockout after being crowned MTN8 champions.
OUADDOU SPIES INTO GALLANTS CAMP
“For us, it’s a competition we have to put all the effort to win. We know that it will not be easy. The team that we are playing against, I know 100% of them,” Ouaddou said.
“I know what I have left there in that club,” the Pirates head coach added. “I know the team spirit that I have built there, so, we have to be prepared for that to bring this cup to our club.”
At 28, Bahlabane ba Ntwa coach Lafitte is the youngest coach to ever lead a PSL team. Having not played at the highest level, he will be up against a coach who tasted English Premier League football as a player and featured at four AFCON finals.
“I think when you are young and you manage to come into the South African market, one of the best leagues in Africa, you have qualities. One of the things I have noticed this season in him, he is different from me last season,” said Ouaddou of Lafitte.
“He was able to buy players. I came in February and I had to deal with the players that we had. But what I can say is that he is doing a good job, he is a young coach.
“It is a team that is very well organised, with compact blocks, very difficult to find spaces against that team. But we will make sure to try to find solutions in order to break that block.”