{"id":48651,"date":"2026-01-29T04:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=48651"},"modified":"2026-01-29T04:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:20:06","slug":"2026-01-29-pirates-poised-for-title-run-undeterred-by-past-misses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/29\/2026-01-29-pirates-poised-for-title-run-undeterred-by-past-misses\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates poised for title run, undeterred by past misses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sounding confident of finally shrugging off their poor reputation by winning what\u2019d be their first championship since the 2011\/12 season, Orlando Pirates captain Nkosinathi Sibisi and coach Abdeslam Ouaddou have made it clear that Bucs have no time to entertain intrusive thoughts of past league misses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">For the past three seasons, Pirates finished as runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns. This season, the Sea Robbers seem to be in a better position to eventually clinch the league title, sitting three points behind leaders Sundowns with two games in hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to say we\u2019ve seen this movie before, I haven\u2019t&#8230;I really haven\u2019t seen this movie before,\u201d Sibisi asserted when asked if their conversations as players reflect on how they\u2019ve lost the league title in the past three seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a fresh start and it\u2019s a fresh season&#8230;we are going for everything and we don\u2019t have to hide that, and let\u2019s see if the movie is the same or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ouaddou, who\u2019s already delivered the MTN8 and the Carling Knockout in what\u2019s his maiden season as Bucs coach, also implied he wasn\u2019t reading too much to their previous shortcoming in the title race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cFor me it\u2019s a new season with a lot of changes and of course with a lot of ambitions. I am only focusing on this season,\u201d Ouaddou said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cYou spoke about reducing the gap [between them and Sundowns, who collected 12 points better than them to win the title last term] \u2026 of course there\u2019s this idea of reducing the gap but it\u2019s not only about that. Maybe there\u2019s an opportunity this season to go higher [than last season], but we need to win every game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Instead, the Moroccan cautioned that they mustn\u2019t count their chickens before they hatch as many tip them as favourites in the title race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIn French there\u2019s a saying that says \u2018don\u2019t sell the skin of a bear before you kill it\u2019, so what I am trying to say is that we are working hard and at the end of the season we can speak,\u201d Ouaddou said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Fixtures<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>League fixtures<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Tomorrow<\/b>: Bay v Arrows, Richards Bay, (7.30pm)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Saturday<\/b>: Gallants v AmaZulu, Dr Molemela (3.30pm); Chippa v Durban, Buffalo City (3.30pm); Polokwane v Orbit, Old Peter Mokaba (6pm); Pirates v Magesi, Orlando Stadium (6pm)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Sunday<\/b>: Galaxy v Sekhukhune, Mbombela (3.30pm)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>CAF Champions League<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Friday<\/b>: Al-Hilal v Sundowns, Amahoro (9pm)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Confederation Cup<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Sunday: <\/b>Chiefs v Zesco, FNB (3pm); Stellenbosch v Belouizdad, Cape Town (3pm).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><b>Sowetan<\/b><\/p>\n<hr class=\"c-divider\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Pirates #poised #title #run #undeterred #misses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sounding confident of finally shrugging off their poor reputation by winning what\u2019d be their first championship since the 2011\/12 season,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48653,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48651\/revisions\/48653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}