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Football

20th Feb 2023

Orlando Pirates accused of ‘disrespectful showboating’

Callum Boyle

The sort of thing that is met with a crunching tackle in Sunday league

Orlando Pirates have been accused of being disrespectful towards their opponents during a comfortable 3-0 win.

The Pirates brushed aside Sekhukhune United to overtake their nearest competitors Cape Town City FC in the DStv Diski Challenge as goals from Sonwabo Khumalo and Relebohile Ratomo, who scored a brace, made sure of the win.

However their win has been met with criticism by some after a series of showboat moments against Sekhukhune, with some even saying they lacked respect.

A number of players can be seen dancing around the ball with one even dropping to his knees before going on to retain possession.

Many reacted angrily with one person tweeting: “Who’s this boy? I’d substitute him immediately. Who’s coaching this nonsense?”

Another said: “This is embarrassing. These boys don’t understand that the main goal is to be recognized by senior team, whoever is coaching them is not doing good job when it comes to keeping them grounded and focused.”

A third said: “That’s the reason our national teams cannot win tournaments. We will never get anywhere with this.”

Although some didn’t like what they saw, Pirates coach Joseph Makhanya defended his team and instead praised them for ‘expressing themselves’.

He said: “Football is an expression. If you are feeling confident about doing certain things, do them.

“From my side, I was that kind of a player so I’ll always encourage players to express themselves as long as they feel confident about it.

“This game needs more confident players so sometimes you need to do certain things. So yes, some might see these things as disrespectful but we check the result. It’s 3-0.”

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