Another piece of silverware has slipped away from Orlando Pirates, but interim coach Rhulani Mokwena had nothing but praise for his side's display against Kaizer Chiefs.
The Buccaneers were dumped out the Telkom Knockout on Saturday afteternoon following a penalty shoot-out loss to Chiefs at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Pirates played most of the second half and the entire extra-time with 10 men and Mokwena was overjoyed with the performance.
"First congratulations to Kaizer Chiefs, they won the match, we're never sore losers at Orlando Pirates, we gave it our best, we gave as much as we received but at the end of the day we're on the losing end, we congratulate the opponent and move on," Mokwena told SuperSport TV.
"You gotta look at the game in it's entirety, from the beginning of the whistle until 45 minutes half-time there [was] only one team on the pitch, complete control, complete dominance except to deal with the long balls from their centre-backs, the diagonal balls from the full-backs [with] [Njabulo] Blom and [Yagan] Sasman trying to target [Samir] Nurkovic and [Leonardo] Castro and then you have to look out for the movement of Khama [Billiat], which I think we dealt with exceptionally well," he continued to analyse the game.
"In between, before you go to half-time, you get a break, you put a bit of pressure on [Daniel] Akpeyi, that's another big decision that could have gone for us, unfortunately it goes against us, so it's the first decision that goes against us.
"The second one, should have been, should not have been, OK, you get it, another big decision that goes against you and you're caught on the back foot for a couple of moments and you've got to reshuffle the organisation of the team, the structure of the team has to change because Dube gets a red-card and that's a very important position and while we're still to reshuffle and find our feet, we concede a goal in a critical phase, okay, 1-1.
"The third big decision that goes against the Buccaneers is the penalty, I've even seen worse penalties being given this season so ja bitter pill to swallow particularly when you've played so well one, when you've been the better team tactically on the pitch two, and three when you've been so brave.
"There was certain moments I was sitting on the bench and I looked at the pitch I thought I was Picasso looking at a Mona Lisa painting. I could just smile with admiration for these players. They fight, they want to fight for the badge, they want to represent Orlando Pirates with aplomb and they are prepared to eat the grass if push comes to shove, we gotta congratulate them for the performance, unfortunately for the Buccaneers we're on the other end of the result."
