Pirates seeking redemption against Swallows in Soweto derby

There’s no question that Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro will be looking for an improved performance from his charges when the Buccaneers meet Moroka Swallows in the original Soweto derby on Wednesday.

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Pirates looked flat and out of place against a well organised Sekhukhune United outfit last weekend and they lost the DStv Premiership game 2-1 at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.

After the game, a visibly upset Riveiro slammed his Pirates players for not showing the right attitude for the game.

“It’s not because of the names on the field, it’s because of the attitude,” said Riveiro.

“You are 1-0 down, you have nothing to lose and you start to play with a little bit more risk but we need to assume those risks early in the game when we’re nil-nil because that’s our intention when we’re coming to the games.

“We just gave too much to Sekhukhune in the beginning to feel comfortable with their game plan and that’s why we’re going out of this game with zero points.”

Riveiro decided to rest some of his regular starters for the game against Sekhukhune and looking at how disjointed Pirates were especially at the back, especially in the first half, the Spanish coach should shoulder some blame for how the team played.

Defenders Nkosinathi Sibisi and Tapelo Xoki and midfielders Thabang Monare and Patrick Maswanganyi were rested for the Sekhukhune clash. The quartet was part of the Bafana Bafana squad in the inaugural FIFA Series held in Algeria.

Thabiso Sesane, who made his league debut for Pirates was paired with Olisa Ndah, at centre of the Bucs defence, but he struggled to keep up with the pacey Sekhukhune forwards and was replaced at the break by Sandile Mthethwa.

Swallows on the other side are coming into this Soweto derby clash brimming with confidence having beaten Cape Town Spurs 1-0 in their last league game to move to 13th place on the log standings.

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Birds coach Musa Nyatama was happy with the win against Spurs, but he admits that the Dube Birds are not out of the woods yet and they need to collect as many maximum points as possible.

“We’ve still got 27 points to play for, let’s see how many points we’re going to get, but we’ll try and reach the maximum, and we’ll just take it one game at a time,” said Nyatama.