Orlando Pirates co-coach Mandla Ncikazi has revealed what the technical team told Thembinkosi Lorch after he missed the deciding penalty in the CAF Confederations Cup final.
The 28-year-old netted his side’s 117th minute equaliser against RS Berkane but then failed to convert his spot-kick in the penalty shootout, where he was the only one to miss.
However, Lorch seemed refreshed on Tuesday, when helped his side to a 4-1 win over Maritzburg United after recording three assists and scoring one himself.
Ncikazi revealed after the match that they as technical team had to do some mental boosting of their winger after the tough week he’s had.
“We have to be psychologists, and coaches and be honest and realistic, I don’t think Lorch played badly in that match but for all top professionals, they miss penalties,” Ncikazi said.
“For him to get Man of the Match and miss a penalty, normally we practice penalties and why he was on the list of takers is because he does well in training, it’s normal. So you can’t penalise or judge him based on the one he missed.
“That was the message to him and he understood like all players I thought that match is one we shouldn’t have lost based on how we played and he performed.
“But football is like that, you don’t score you don’t win matches and that’s what we did and I thought the reality maybe sunk into the team and then we looked into the next assignment which is the league and we know what’s in there for us.”
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