Pirates prepare to face Al Ahly in the first leg of the African Champions League Final in Orlando tomorrow, determined to emulate the African champion side of 1995, and eager to mark their own place in history.
Season after season, Pirates players have had to listen to comparisons with the club's great side of 1995. In particular, players are told they need to show the sort of character and mental strength that ran through the 1995 African champions, from Okpara in goal, to Jerry Sikhosana up front.
Okpara, one of the stand-out stars of '95, believes the class of 2013 now compares favourably with the legendary side that triumphed in Abidjan with a stirring backs-to-the-wall performance.
“I believe this team has stepped up. Now they are telling me, we are going to remove that star and replace it with our own,” he says.
“The way they are playing, I see them having similar character. That character is built when you come through difficult times, and when you see how they beat TP Mazembe, how they played in Egypt, how they got through the semi-final against Esperance, you can see how their self-belief has grown.”
Nicknamed ‘the Godfather’, Okpara is not a man to dish out praise freely. A highly motivated and aggressive keeper in his day, he worked with Bucs’ goalies after retiring in 2005 with over 360 games for Pirates behind him.
The Nigerian made his debut for Pirates just over 20 years ago, against AmaZulu in September 1993, and the next year helped Pirates win their first League championship in almost two decades.
African Champions Cup success followed, and his performance in Abidjan as Pirates clung on for a 1-0 win over a rampant Asec Mimosas is a part of football folklore.
Asec made 27 attempts on Okpara’s goal that day – at the other end, Sikhosana scored from one of only two clear chances that fell Pirates’ way – and Okpara recalls he was “too tired, too sore to celebrate much” when the trophy was won.
He had enough left in him to hold the trophy high at full-time – as illustrated on the cover of the current edition of Kick Off magazine – but now he believes it is time for the players of 2013 to create their own iconography.
Edward Motale, the stand-in captain on the day, lifted the trophy, then handed it to Okpara in recognition of his resilience in holding Mimosas at bay.
Could it be that stand-in skipper Happy Jele holds the cup aloft in Egypt in 10 days time?
Okpara believes so, but he would prefer that Pirates do not go about it "the hard way" as he and his teammates did 18 years ago: “To me, the Final is the first leg here in South Africa – we need to win without conceding here at home. Then we can go to Egypt, knowing what we have to do.”