Orlando Pirates are the new Betway Premiership champions after they defeated Orbit College 2-0 in front of a packed Mbombela Stadium on Saturday. The Buccaneers have now toppled Mamelodi Sundowns from the summit of the mountain after they had won the league title for the last eight years.
Bucs finish the season on 69 points with Sundowns number two after amassing 68 points. They have ended a 14-year trophy drought and also won a treble in what will be a very memorable season for their die-hard supporters.
As for the hapless Orbit, who conceded two own goals, the loss means that they are automatically relegated and will play their football in the Motsepe Foundation Championship next season.
The players, the supporters, and the technical staff were very emotional and ecstatic at the same time. The Bucs die-hard fans really came to the party the whole season, they were a galvanizing force, filled the stadiums to capacity and cheered their players on in each and every match. The fans really deserve credit for lifting their team, mostly in difficult times.
Coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has had a fantastic season after he started with a bit of a stutter when they lost their first two league matches and were rooted at the bottom of the PSL log table. Pirates recouped and launched a massive fightback and challenged Sundowns toe-to-toe. As soon as the players understood his tactics and strategies, Pirates were a mean machine and walloped teams as if they were naughty teenagers.
But Pirates almost blew it when they could have won it last week but they drew 0-0 with Durban City at Orlando Stadium. They left the best performance for the last match of the season and had Orbit in all sorts of trouble from the first whistle.
The two own goals were scored by goalkeeper Calvin Nkomo who punched an easy corner kick into his own net on the stroke of halftime. In the second stanza, Ndumiso Ngiba toe-poked the ball into the net past an advancing Nkomo and set the celebrations underway for millions of Pirates supporters.
- Orlando Pirates are the new Betway Premiership champions after they defeated Orbit College 2-0 in front of a packed Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.
- The Buccaneers have now toppled Mamelodi Sundowns from the summit of the mountain after they had won the league title for the last eight years.
- Bucs finish the season on 69 points with Sundowns number two after amassing 68 points.
- They have ended a 14-year trophy drought and also won a treble in what will be a very memorable season for their die-hard supporters.
- As for the hapless Orbit, who conceded two own goals, the loss means that they are automatically relegated and will play their football in the Motsepe Foundation Championship next season.
