{"id":56670,"date":"2026-04-20T11:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=56670"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:58:24","slug":"pirates-ouaddou-confident-soweto-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/04\/20\/pirates-ouaddou-confident-soweto-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates&#8217; Ouaddou confident ahead of Soweto derby"},"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<p><h2>&#8216;This was a very good moment for the guys and it&#8217;s even better before the derby,&#8217; said the Pirates head coach. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou believes that his team\u2019s return to form could prove to be a significant moment in the tight title race.<\/p>\n<p>Having been held to a frustrating 2-2 draw by Richards Bay FC in their previous game away at the Umhlathuze Sports Complex, the Buccaneers returned to winning ways this past weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Goals from Yanela Mbuthuma, Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng earned Pirates a 3-0 victory over AmaZulu at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-pirates-on-top-for-now\">Pirates on top \u2013 for now<\/h2>\n<p>The victory took Ouaddou\u2019s team to the top of the Betway Premiership standings with 58 points after 25 games. They lead second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns by two points, but the Brazilians have two games in hand. Sundowns could retain their top spot with a win against Stellenbosch FC at home on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Ouaddou, however, is still delighted that the Buccaneers were able to return to winning ways ahead of Sunday\u2019s Soweto derby at the FNB Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a very good moment for the guys and it\u2019s even better before the derby. It (the convincing win) gives a lot of confidence to the boys,\u201d said Ouaddou.<\/p>\n<p>The Buccaneers were at their usual fluid best against AmaZulu last Saturday and with better finishes, they could have scored more than the three goals they scored.<\/p>\n<p>Pirates have now scored 50 goals in the league and they are three goals away from breaking their own record of 52 goals in a Premier Soccer League 30-game era set during the 2004\/05 season under Kosta Papic.<\/p>\n<p>And ahead of the derby, Ouaddou says they will not alter their playing style for this all-important game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play every game to win and we haven\u2019t altered that when playing home or away, when you coach Pirates, you play attacking football,\u201d said Ouaddou.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes teams have been able to challenge us and that\u2019s a part of football but we can\u2019t take out the good things our team has done and we\u2019ll definitely keep pushing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a group of players that we trust and everyone is involved in the project,\u201d added the Moroccan.<\/p>\n<p>Pirates handed Chiefs a 3-0 drubbing in the reverse fixture at the same venue in the first round of the season. Can they do a league double over their bitter Soweto rivals? Time will tell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/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 #Ouaddou #confident #ahead #Soweto #derby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;This was a very good moment for the guys and it&#8217;s even better before the derby,&#8217; said the Pirates head&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56670","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\/56670","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=56670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56672,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56670\/revisions\/56672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}