Orlando Pirates assistant coach Sergio Almenara says Thembinkosi Lorch being hauled off in the Soweto Derby was purely tactical after the red card.
Chiefs completed the double over Pirates with the 1-0 win at FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon with Olisa Ndah scoring a late own goal while Innocent Maela was also sent off earlier in the second half – which Almenara noted was a tunring point in the game.
“We needed to readjust because of the red card of Inno, so we went with a center-back [Ndah] and some fresh legs [Motshwari] in order to… because we were going to spend some time in a low block, so we needed people to be able to run spaces,” he said about taking off Lorch, in the post-match press conference at the Calabash.
“Well, we think the first half was for Chiefs and we were struggling defensively, we couldn’t find a way during the first half to neutralise the way they were attacking,” he said.
“Offensively we couldn’t find the spaces we needed to find to get advantages, so at half time we fixed these things, and in our opinion, the start of the second half was good for us. We felt better, we thought we could take the game for ourselves.
“But then, unfortunately, came the red card and we were one man down, we made some changes to assist us more and some substitutions to see if we could get an advantage for the low block and counter-attacking with fast players and players who can find spaces.
“The own goal came but we felt, Chiefs, in the second half didn’t create so much – that’s it.”
Pirates now turn their attention to Swallows on Friday before their Nedbank Cup last-16 clash against Venda Football Academy on 11 March.
