The Orlando Pirates Chronicle
Squad28 Dec 2026
Erick Dala damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Tshepang Moremi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Andre de Jong says Orlando Pirates went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match26 Dec 2026
Orlando Pirates make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Orlando Pirates have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Orlando Pirates
Yanela Mbuthuma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mpho Padime is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Deon Hotto falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match26 Dec 2026
Yanela Mbuthuma sends Orlando Pirates past Golden Arrows
It finished 1‑0, and it was Yanela Mbuthuma’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Orlando Pirates.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Makhehleni Makhaula gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
- Player ratings Yanela Mbuthuma stands above it all
- The dugout A satisfied Keagan Williams
- Looking ahead Deon Hotto goes back to face Bidvest Wits