Attitude key – Orlando Pirates coach Ruud Krol
Attitude key to Cup success – Krol
Posted: 2010-04-29 07:58
Orlando Pirates coach Ruud Krol says attitude at the start of a Cup match can make the difference between winning and losing.
The Dutch coach was speaking about Bucs upcoming Nedbank Cup game against Second Division side Als Puk Tawana who knocked Platinum Stars out in the earlier round of the competition.
"Even though that match was not broadcast on television I watched it on DVDs and they (Tawana) are a good team that plays football, otherwise they wouldn’t have kicked out Platinum Stars if they were not a good team.
"I think Platinum Stars started with the wrong attitude and if you start with a wrong attitude then it is difficult to fix things during the match.
"That is what happened in that game and Tawana scored at the right moments."
Krol says they will not be treating Tawana with kid gloves because the defeat of Stars is warning enough for them to field their strongest team in Saturdays clash.
The coach says they have also taken the precaution after watching Kaizer Chiefs being booted out of the competition by another lower division opponent, FC Cape Town.
He says that they will not be taking an approach that underestimates their opponents.
"In fact, we never underestimate our opponents and play the best team that we can assemble."
With Krol aware of the pressure that is piling up on his shoulders as he moves towards completing his second year at the club without silverware, he says he intends to make certain they do not repeat the mistake that was made by Chiefs.
"The Cup is completely different in that it is either life or death and there is only one chance. If you start with the wrong attitude then you will suffer. FC Cape Town obviously does not have as much quality as Chiefs, but they took advantage of the wrong attitude that Chiefs started out with.
"After we saw Stars being kicked out by Tawana we spoke and then played against teams at that level so that we could learn what to expect when playing against teams at that level.
"But what we know is that we will be playing against a team that can play football and with skill. We have done a lot of talking and exercises in which we have drilled the players in what we need for the match.
"We did that last week and have repeated it this week. We trained on the crosses and shooting," adds Krol.
Pirates will be minus Dennis Masina who has suffered a bout flu after having shown positive signs of recovery from his ankle injury.
"We must also be careful of injury issues now because we don’t have so many players available in the first place," concludes Krol.
Comment on this article:
TERMS OF USE: The comments posted below do not reflect the views of KickOff.com. Users are reminded that no misuse of this comment facility will be tolerated. Any abusive, racist or inflammatory comments will be deleted and the user banned. Please report abusive posts to editor@kickoff.com