On Wednesday, Orlando Pirates returned to action, hosting Cape Town Spurs
in the Carling Knockout at Orlando Stadium. Bucs were coming off a victory
in the MTN8 Cup against Mamelodi Sundowns and were hoping to rediscover
their momentum quickly.
Addressing the media during a press conference at the PSL offices, head
coach Jose Riveiro stated that the FIFA break came at the wrong time for
his charges. Though, it must be remembered that Pirates did lose a few
games before beating Sundowns 3-1 on penalties, after the score was locked
on 0-0 after extra-time in Durban.
“The FIFA break is always tricky and sensitive. Let’s put it this way. You
are coming from a final. You get victory in the finals. You are
champions,” said Riveiro to the media. “You want to play in three, four
days. Have a rest. Have proper training. Use the momentum. So when you are
winning you don’t want to stop. Especially when you are not getting
results and you want to change the game and don’t lose momentum.”
The coach discussed the availability of his players with a few injury
concerns to take into consideration. “We didn’t have Paseka (Mako),
Nkosinathi (Sibisi), Zakhele (Lepasa) and Richard (Ofori) but we had 25 to
26 players to choose from so it’s not a problem for us,” he said.
“We will have a team to face Spurs and when those players who were with
their national teams arrive we will assess them and see their condition if
they will be able to play. But as I have said before, we have 25 available
players to select from and they are all Orlando Pirates players,” the
coach concluded.
Orlando Pirates are #MTN8 Champions 🏆 ✨🎉. pic.twitter.com/fsDTWkqB9N
— The Buccaneers Talkzone (@talk_bucs) October 7, 2023
