Reaching five consecutive cup finals is an achievement on its own, but the fact that Pirates have lost 80 percent of those cannot be overlooked. With a statistic of that nature, one would suspect that the players may have lost their ability to manage their nerve on the big stage.
However, 'VV' disagrees and says that he knew beforehand that whoever scored first would go on to win the match, and he credits Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Brilliant Khuzwayo for the Buccaneers’ loss to their arch-rivals in last night’s MTN8 Final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
“No. Look, I said to my technical team before the game, ‘I feel that whoever scores first will win the game,'” says Vermezovic.
“Unfortunately we conceded the first goal, and we pushed hard but I can’t say my players [never] tried; they pushed, they showed character, and thanks to [Khuzwayo] we lost the game.
“At the end of the day, they [Kaizer Chiefs] got an opportunity [and capitalised on it],” says the Serb.
“I don’t think my players are scared of final games. I hope we are going to reach another final very soon, and we’ll see.”