Lehlohonolo Seema treading carefully against in-form Orlando Pirates

This is the second meeting between the two sides in as many weeks, with Pirates having walked away 1-0 victors at Free State Stadium last Tuesday.

Seema, though mindful of the opportunity to spring up a surprise in the cup, insists The Buccaneers are the favourites and his charges would be amiss to think they can disrespect the home side at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

"I think you are as good as your last game, they have won two games and it makes them the informed team and yes, you're right the cup, there's always a different vibe when you are playing a cup,” Seema said. 

“But if you are gonna go there and say we know that Orlando Pirates hasn't done well in this cup we'll be making a big mistake because we are looking at the current form, the way they are doing at the moment. 

“They are doing very well and we'll have to make sure that we put our best foot forward at Orlando."

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The match will kick-off at 15:00 on Saturday, with the broadcast set to go live on SABC 1 at 14:30.

The coach also commented on the status of new recruit Zakhele Lepasa, who joined the Bloemfontein outfit as a free agent last week. 

Having been out injured for the entirety of the 2024/25 season, Seema says they have to help the 28-year-old build himself back up, but he remains confident in the player's ability.

"One thing that I've picked up when I first met him especially at training is that the guy is still happy to be in football. Sometimes when you have been out for long then you lose the interest, he looked very happy and I had a chat with him, even his teammates had a chat with him that was very funny,” the coach added.

“Our supporters, they were waiting for him, everybody like you said we know that he's a brilliant striker, he's a finisher, everybody is waiting for him but I can tell you we can see how far he is and for sure we have had a conversation with him. 

“We still need to help him not even to get onto fitness but there are a lot of elements that we still need to work on with him. We have spoken to him about them and injury is not one of them.

“We know that people say he's limping or whatever, after the operation sometimes you get into a certain way of doing things because the mind is still taking you there but I can tell you that he's 100% pain free."