On Tuesday, Orlando Pirates Head Coach Jose Riveiro revealed why star striker Kermit Erasmus was taken off at half-time during the club’s Nedbank Cup clash against Venda Football Academy.
The Buccaneers were forced to go into extra-time to secure a 2-1 victory at Orlando Stadium on Saturday night.
Erasmus opened the scoring for Pirates in the first-half, but had to be substituted off due to an injury. Speaking after the match, Riveiro explained that the decision was taken to avoid aggravating the injury.
“Kermit had a problem early in the first-half, he tried to manage during the first 45 minutes but it was too much,” the Spaniard told SuperSport.
“So we didn’t want to make it worse and take any risks with him and that’s why we substituted Kermit.” Riveiro believes that close cup games can help the team grow and learn
“It’s a cup game and what happened is one of the possibilities always,” he said.
“I think we managed the first-half quite okay in terms of control, even though we conceded a couple of actions where the opponent could capitalize. But we were not at our level in the last minutes, we didn’t understand so well how to deal with a low block, always with one extra pass and not really generous in our running to the space, exactly the same in the second-half.”
The coach went on to explain that the team got nervous in the face of pressure and conceded the equaliser late on.
“But in a different scenario, they start to press a bit higher and we didn’t understand so well how to exploit those spaces behind and due to that, one mistake we concede the equaliser,” he said.
“And then it becomes difficult because you get a bit nervous, no panic but you’re in a hurry, you need a goal you don’t want to go to the penalties because everything is possible there.” Riveiro concluded by praising the opposition and claiming that close games such as this can help the team grow.
“But we try until the end, sometimes you need these type of games also in the season, these kind of difficulties to grow as a group, to understand that nothing comes easy,” he said.
“You really need to work hard. It’s a topic but it’s a topic because it’s true and today was a good example about that. Congratulations to the opponent, fantastic performance, for the resistance and the way they tried to play here tonight.”
