Riveiro blames pitch for loss with Royal AM next

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro blamed the poor field at Danie Craven Stadium for the Buccaneers’ 1-0 defeat by Stellenbosch FC in their DStv Premiership opener on Saturday.

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The Pirates coach wasn’t happy with conditions at the stadium, stating that it made things difficult for them.

Bucs conceded a goal just before half time, with Antonio van Wyk scoring on the break to put the home side in the lead and the goal ended up being the match winner for coach Steve Barker’s men.

Riveiro insists that his tea to force their way back into the game, but Stellenbosch were very defensive. They will have to forget about the result as they have another league game against Royal AM at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday.

“It (the loss) is not difficult to explain, we had a good rhythm from the start, we took the initiative on a very poor field and that means you’re also taking risks,” Riveiro told SuperSport TV after the match.

“In one of those situations they punished us in transition. From there we were trying to do everything in order to equalise, little by little the opponent was defending deeper,”

“So that made it complicated to find a simple advantage in the last minutes, we couldn’t manage to capitalise. We lost the first game of the season. We have to keep going because tomorrow is match-day -2 (Sunday), we play Tuesday again, there’s no time to waste.”

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Riveiro will certainly be looking for a better result against Royal AM after the disappointing outing against Stellies.

The Spaniard gave Patrick Maswanganyi and Katlego Otladisa their official debuts in the clash against the Cape Town based side, with Maswanganyi starting the match, while Otladisa came on in the second half.

It remains to be seen whether the Bucs coach tweak his line-up against Thwihli Thwahla, who started their campaign with a goalless draw against AmaZulu FC at Harry Gwala Stadium.