Ouaddou hails Kaizer Chiefs as Da Cruz slams referees

"Seeing the game from outside, this technical team of Kaizer Chiefs is doing a great job," said Ouaddou. Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou was full of praise for his arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs following his team’s victory in the Soweto Derby at FNB Stadium. Goals from Yanela Mbuthuma and Tshepang Moremi guided the Buccaneers to a 2-1 victory over Amakhosi at the FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Speaking to the media after the game, Ouaddou stated that Chiefs have a very good team with talented young players, noting that they are on the right path and should not be written off in the title race. “Seeing the game from outside, this technical team of Kaizer Chiefs is doing a great job. We must let them work and implement their game model,” said Ouaddou. “These guys at Chiefs have a very good team with very good young players and, in my opinion, they’re on the right path, and we don’t have to rule them out of the title race. “This is a big club with great fans and this technical team is doing a great job,” he added. Chiefs did dominate ball possession in the first half and created several opportunities, enough chances to take a commanding lead before the break. However, their failure to convert those opportunities allowed Pirates to remain in the game before Moremi struck the winner in the 55th minute. Meanwhile, Chiefs coach Fernando da Cruz blamed poor officiating and lack of experience from his young team for the defeat against Pirates. “The analysis is very easy: in the first half we must kill this game, normally two-three zero because the goal of Pirates we still have to review; it was offside and maybe there’s a red card, so if we score two or three goals, we kill this game,” said Da Cruz. Despite the Soweto derby setback, Da Cruz refused to throw in the towel in the Betway Premiership title race. “I will say that it is more difficult today (Saturday) after this game, but the PSL is a long journey, so 21 fixtures remain. But when we recover our injured players, because we have been unlucky since the start of the season, we will have more consistency in our performance because we had a lot of draws this season, but we deserved to win this game, but because of our lack of experience we didn’t win it,” added Da Cruz.