Riveiro praises ‘joyous’ Pirates attack after another goal glut

Jose Riveiro pointed to the enjoyment his Orlando Pirates players are getting out of the game, after the Buccaneers hammered Sekhukhune United 5-0 to reach the MTN8 semifinals on Saturday at Orlando Stadium.

Zakhele Lepasa grabbed a hat-trick and Monnapule Saleng and Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo also netted as Pirates tore Sekhukhune apart in the second half, having survived a scare when Chibuike Ohizu’s penalty hit the post.

“You can see they are having fun, they are joyous playing together going forward,” said Riverio, whose side now have nine goals in two games, after thumping Royal AM 4-2 in the DStv Premiership last week.

“Sometimes the game becomes like a storm (of attacks).”

Lepasa has been in inspired form on his return to Pirates, after spending last season on loan at SuperSport United, grabbing five goals in his last two games – he even had time to hit the woodwork and miss a penalty on Saturday.

“The forward players in our squad are very talented, obviously after nine goals in two games we can be happy,” added Riveiro.

“It will not always be like that, we were very effective a few days ago and today we were clinical with the chances we got in the second half. It is not always possible to score four or five goals in one game, sometimes you can score one and keep a clean sheet.

“So to keep a clean sheet like we did today also makes me happy. When we won the MTN8 (last season) one of the keys was our consistency in defence.”

Turning point

With Pirates just 1-0 up at half time against Brandon Truter’s Sekhukhune, Riveiro admitted that the penalty miss by Ohizu was also vital.

“We started the second half slowly,” he said.

“I don’t know what happened with the penalty, I didn’t see it, but they didn’t score and it was one of the keys in the game. After that we did a lot of things very well.”