‘Lorch a good penalty taker’ — Ncikazi on the kick that cost Pirates the final

Orlando Pirates co-coach Mandla Ncikazi says Thembinkosi Lorch is one of the good penalty-takers in the team and that’s why he was top of the order to take kicks for the Caf Confederation Cup final.

Lorch, who was number two on the penalty-takers' list for Pirates, missed his attempt against RS Berkane of Morocco as the SA side lost 5-4 in the shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in the final in Uyo, Nigeria on Friday night. The 28-year-old playmaker was named man-of-the-match despite the miss.

Many questioned why Lorch was on the list as he once cost Pirates when he missed in the Telkom Knockout final defeat to Baroka FC in 2018.

Lorch redeemed himself from Friday's miss in style as he spearheaded Ncikazi’s men to an emphatic 4-1 DStv Premiership win over Maritzburg United at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday night.

“We have to be psychologists, coaches and be honest and realistic — I don’t say Lorch played badly in that match [the final],” Ncikazi said.

“But all top professionals miss penalties and for him to get the man-of-the-match and miss a penalty [shows he performed well].

“Normally, we practise penalties and he was on the list of penalty takers because he does well at training.

“But it’s normal to sometimes miss a penalty and we cannot judge him on the one he missed. That was the message to him and he understood, like all players.

“I thought we shouldn’t have lost that final based on how we played and how we performed, but football is like that. If you don’t score you don’t win matches and that’s what we did.

“I thought maybe the reality sunk into the team and then we looked into the next assignment, which is the league, and we know what is there for us.”

Lorch delivered another man-of-the-match performance against Maritzburg as he scored and was involved in the other three goals for the Bucs.

Though Bucs banged in four goals, Ncikazi felt the scoreline could have been bigger.

“We are feeling we could have scored more — the two chances Lorch had before he scored and Happy [Jele] with the header and [Tshegofatso] Mabasa one-on-one with the keeper. We need to take those chances.”

Pirates have two of their matches that were rescheduled due to their run to the Confed final left to play. They need to win both, against Royal AM on Friday (7.30pm) and SuperSport United at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Monday, to end in second place in the Premiership.

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