Pirates beat Tunisian side CS Sfaxien on Sunday with a delightful chipped goal from Thabo Rakhale, who caught Sfaxien's goalkeeper off his line to keep the Buccaneers on course for the semi-finals.
Pirates were recently the most represented club team for Bafana Bafana in the opening match of their 2017 African Nations Cup qualifiers against Gambia and are the only team left in the Southern African zone still in CAF competition.
Get the latest Pirates news sent to your phone. SMSs cost R1.50.
Mashaba says those Bucs players have raised the bar higher because they are not afraid to hold their own against the best on the continent.
“You can lack match intelligence and all these other things sometimes and it can be a problem, but if you are physically strong and you have a big heart that makes life simple for you because you play with the mind and compliment that with a big heart,” said Mashaba at the welcome dinner for the Durban Under-19 International Tournament.
“Regarding Pirates, it is very good this is happening; if you remember in 1995 when Pirates went on to win the star, what happened in the next year in 1996? We went on to win the Africa Cup of Nations.”
READ: Matlaba, Rooi ruled out of Derby
While in the past Bafana have often frozen in the bigger games, Pirates have not shown any signs of being intimidated to play in the big games in Africa, and Mashaba puts that down to coach Eric Tinkler.
“The number one thing that we need not to ignore is the coach of Orlando Pirates, Eric Tinkler. He has played a huge part in this,” he adds.
“He was part and parcel of the team that was doing well in 2013 [en route to the CAF Champions League Final] so he might have said to his players 'this is how we gonna approach these games'.
“It is about how much your players express themselves because you, as a coach, you are able to say 'that's one of their weak points’ but if they hold back, you are in trouble. Look at the goal Rakhale scored, a lot of things came in that.”