Stands or bench makes no difference for Pirates’ Riveiro

Jose Riveiro, the Orlando Pirates coach will watch his team take on their biggest DStv Premiership rivals Kaizer Chiefs from the stands. 

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The Spanish mentor will serve his last game of a suspension in the Soweto derby at FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

This follows the red card he was shown during Pirates’ Nedbank Cup game against All Stars recently. 

Riveiro, however, believes this means nothing and makes no difference as he has capable people to man the Pirates dugout. 

His assistants Sergio Almenara and Mandla Ncikazi will be on the bench for Pirates while Riveiro watches from the stands.

“Unfortunately, I will not be on the bench where I’m supposed to be,” said Riveiro this week. 

“But it’s not a big problem for the players that I’ll not be on the bench because I have a fantastic, super staff. 

“The players are used to working with all our coaches at the same level as they work with me. 

“Sometimes our influence from the bench as coaches is not importantm but the players are the most important people in football games,” added Riveiro.

On the magnitude of the derby, Riveiro said it is a special game that will be televised in different countries. 

He said it is a good vehicle to market the country’s football and show the world what level South Africa is at.

It’s a special game watched all over the world

“The game will be a fantastic opportunity for us to show our level because this is one of the only games I knew before I started coaching here. 

“The game will be televised in many countries, so we have an opportunity to show how we can organise such a big game.

“It’s also an opportunity to show how seriously we take football here. I hope it’ll be a fair game where the game will be the winner,” explained Riveiro.

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“It’s a special moment… a different type of game. It’s true that we’re happy to go into this game in a good space after winning our past few games. 

“We are confident but when we played against Chiefs last year it was pretty much the same situation,” added the Pirates mentor.