Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro sought to explain why his team has yet to score a single goal in the second-half of any of their 15 PSL matches this season.
The Sea Robbers’ defeat to Cape Town City over the weekend extended their streak to 15 matches without a second-half goal, reportedly becoming a record in the PSL era.
In a press conference, Riveiro initially resisted answering questions on the matter, but eventually opened up. He said that in some games, Pirates have scored too early and have been forced to defend deep, meaning they have had fewer opportunities to find the back of the net.
“We should go deep in the analysis, it’s nice to mention that it’s a record but we want to go deeper, we analyse game after game,” said Riveiro. “The games that we didn’t score in the second-half, there’s many games where we didn’t need to score as well, we were leading and one of the consequences sometimes was to defend a bit lower, not by purpose.”
Riveiro also pointed out that Pirates had scored in the second-half of their MTN8 games against Royal AM and Mamelodi Sundowns, leading him to question why they can’t do the same in the league.
“And other games we just couldn’t. We scored in the MTN8 games in the second-half, against Royal AM we scored two times, against Mamelodi Sundowns…,” he said. “But for some reason in the league it was not possible. We hit the post, we made the goalkeeper superstar every night almost but we will get there.”
Pirates are one of the lowest scoring teams in the league, with only ten goals in 15 league matches. Coach Riveiro remains confident that his team will break their second-half goal drought soon.
‘We have been a rough patch,” – Orlando Pirates midfielder Thabang Monare. pic.twitter.com/0xSh6axhco
— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) January 12, 2023
