The Premier Soccer League has announced the venue for the final of the MTN8 match between Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch FC on 13 September.
Despite rumours that Moses Mabhida Stadium is poised to host the match for the fourth time in a row, the governing body announced that Mbombela Stadium will host this year’s clash, which is set to kick off at 18:00.
Orlando Pirates made it to their fourth successive final after easing past Polokwane City 2-0 in the opening round and knocking out Mamelodi Sundowns 4-1 on penalties after the two-legged semi-final affair ended 2-2 on aggregate.
Stellies, on the other hand, edged AmaZulu 3-2 during extra time in the quarterfinals and followed it with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Sekhukhune in the semis to reach their second MTN8 final in succession.
The two finalists have already met this season in a league match that ended 1-0 in favour of Pirates. Barker hailed his opponents and added that his side still has a lot to learn from the loss.
“They [Pirates] are a good team, they showed midweek how good they are when they dominated us for the first 20, 25 minutes, so a lot of lessons for us to learn from that [1-0 league defeat], but we will only concentrate on that [the MTN8 final] after next week,” said Barker.
The Buccaneers defeated the Cape Winelands team 3-1 in last year’s final for them to lift their third straight #WafaWafa trophy.
A lot has changed since that game. Pirates are now under the leadership of Abdeslam Ouaddou following the departure of Jose Riveiro, who joined Al Ahly at the end of last season. Monnapule Saleng, who netted the equaliser for the Bucs, is now on loan to Orbit College.
Sihle Nduli has switched sides and joined the Sea Robbers, while former captain Fawaaz Basadien is now in the books of Sundowns.
The details of ticket sales will be announced in the near future.