Riveiro says Pirates remain one of the best teams in the league

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro believes Bucs remain one of the best teams this year despite ending the year in a disappointing manner.

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Riveiro’s Pirates lost two of their last matches of the year, losing 3-1 to SuperSport United before wrapping up the year with a disappointing 3-2 loss to Stellenbosch FC after they were 2-0 up in the game at Orlando Stadium on Friday.

But Riveiro says winning the Nedbank Cup and the MTN8 Cup makes them a good side and the last two results don’t really mean that much.

The Spaniard remains hopeful of a successful future for the Buccaneers and believes there is a lot to learn from the past two games.

“We are wrapping up 2023. If you go to the numbers for the entire year, it is a technical thing because some teams didn’t play the same number of games as us. But let’s say we are one of the best teams in 2023 because we won two titles,” said the Buccaneers coach after the match.

“Let’s not dramatise the last two results too much. I have a feeling that we are going to learn a lot from these last two games. I don’t want to sound stupid but it will be something good for us in the future,” he said.

A tale of two halves

Riveiro says his side had a good first half in the match against Stellies. And he thought they had sealed the match up until Stellenbosch managed to pull one goal back which saw them taking charge of the game.

“It was a good and complete first half against a difficult and physical side. I think we created enough chances to get the lead. We managed to contain them at the beginning of the second half but they later dominated us,” he added.

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“It took a lot of effort to get the second goal, we found ourselves leading 2-0 after 70 minutes but the last 20 minutes … is difficult to explain. I thought the game was totally under control until they scored to make the score 2-1 and from there we totally lost control of the ball, spaces and duels.”