Baroka FC chairman Khurishi Mphahlele says his side view Orlando Pirates as a “big brother” and in as much as they love their brother, they are going to “try and kill him” on Saturday.
The sides meet in the Last 16 round of the Nedbank Cup at Orlando stadium over the weekend in Orlando, with Baroka looking to use the cup to remind fans of their giant killing days and also get momentum going for the league.
Though memories of the 2018 Telkom Knockout Cup final remain a highlight for the Limpopo Motsepe Foundation Championship side, Baroka know Saturday will be different.
Mphahlele addressed the media at the club’s village in Lebowakgomo ahead of the game, saying he admires the Buccaneers a lot, especially chairman Dr Irvin Khoza, however his charges will do their best to eliminate the defending champions.
“Pirates is a good team,” said Mphahlele.
“Pirates is very, very good team, very well run team and we wish to be like them. Everybody wants to be like Pirates and the chairman of Pirates is a humble person.
“We phone each other now and then when there’s a need. He’ll never turn you away and if you don’t find him he’ll come back to you.
“To run a team of that magnitude and to find somebody who is so humble like Dr Irvin Khoza is rare because other chairmen you’ll never even be able to speak to them. They’ll send you the Technical Director, they’ll send you the team manager to talk to you about the business of football.
“I find that man to be running that team very professional, we wish him all the best he wins the cups. And unfortunately he is playing against us on Saturday and we treat ourselves with a development mentality. We learn from them.
“To us he is our big brother so we are going to try to kill our big brother even though we don’t want to do that.”
The game will kick off at 15:00 at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.
