Orlando Pirates 0-1 NEOM SC closed the Buccaneers’ pre-season on a flat note. On Friday, 24 July 2026, Pirates lost their final warm-up fixture in Spain — one week before opening the Betway Premiership campaign.
Orlando Pirates 0-1 NEOM SC: Match Details
- Fixture: Orlando Pirates 0-1 NEOM SC
- Competition: Pre-season friendly
- Date: Friday, 24 July 2026
- Location: Spain (pre-season training camp)
- Significance: final friendly before the 2026/27 season
A Quiet End to the Camp
Abdeslam Ouaddou took his squad to Spain for the final phase of pre-season, and the camp closed with a single-goal defeat to the Saudi Pro League side. For a Buccaneers squad absorbing ten new signings, the fixture was about integration and minutes rather than the result.
What Followed Says More
Pre-season results are notoriously poor predictors, and this one proved the point emphatically. Eight days later Pirates opened the Betway Premiership with a 2-0 win over newly promoted Milford FC at the Orlando Amstel Arena, and went on to:
- Beat Chippa United 3-0 away in August
- Thump Kruger United 4-0
- Reach a fifth successive MTN8 final
- Record four consecutive league wins by mid-September
The squad that lost quietly in Spain became one of the most convincing sides in the country within a month.
The Window Behind It
Pirates made ten signings over the window — including Yanela Mbuthuma, Gamphani Lungu, Sebastian Pedersen from Norway’s Sogndal Fotball, and Mthetheleli Mthiyane — while losing Relebohile Mofokeng to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise and Patrick Maswanganyi to Bahrain. A pre-season friendly is where a squad that size starts learning to play together.
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Betting Insights
- Do not bet pre-season. Rotation, trialists and zero competitive incentive make friendlies the least reliable market in football.
- Use them for information. Line-ups, formations and new-signing minutes are the genuine value.
- Ignore them for outrights. Pirates lost this and went on four straight league wins — the pre-season result carried no signal whatsoever.
Final Word
A forgettable evening in Spain that turned out to mean nothing. What mattered was the eight days that followed, when Ouaddou’s rebuilt squad opened the Betway Premiership with a clean sheet and never looked back.
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Sources
- Goal.com South Africa — “Orlando Pirates 0-1 NEOM SC: defeat in last pre-season friendly in Spain”
- VAVEL — “Orlando Pirates 0-1 Neom: goals and highlights”
- Sofascore — Orlando Pirates vs NEOM SC live score, H2H and line-ups
- Soccerway — Orlando Pirates v NEOM SC line-ups
- Futbol24 — Orlando Pirates vs NEOM SC final score
- Afrik-Foot — Orlando Pirates vs NEOM SC live updates and line-ups
- Orlando Pirates FC (official website)
- Orlando Pirates FC (official) — season opener against Milford FC
- Premier Soccer League (official) — Betway Premiership fixtures and standings
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