Riveiro concedes Bucs too far off ‘excellent’ Downs

Questioned about where they stumbled in the title race after showing early signs of being genuine contenders, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro cited champions-elect Mamelodi Sundowns’ brilliance as one of the reasons their title fight vanished into thin air.

“We are so far [behind] in terms of the points we would have liked to collect. We have to accept that they [Sundowns] are doing an excellent job ... I think they have 19 victories in the league, it’s an excellent record. Sometimes it happens that someone is just winning, winning and that’s one of the reasons we are far [behind Sundowns],” Riveiro said on Wednesday.

“We do our own analysis and it’s not my role to analyse why they [Sundowns] are getting those results. I can say that I know why we are far behind ... imagine if I said I don’t know? I do know but I am not going to tell you. There are multiple reasons ... there were periods where we couldn’t manage to get the average of points per month or per week that Pirates are supposed to get.”

In October 2022 SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt declared  Pirates were the only side capable of challenging Sundowns. Hunt’s assertion would be justified a month later when the Sea Robbers thumped Sundowns 3-0 on aggregate in the MTN8 semifinals en route to lifting the trophy.

Four months later, Pirates find themselves mathematically out of the title race, having to oust Hunt’s SuperSport  from position two to qualify for the CAF Champions League and salvage their league campaign.

Bucs host Matsatsantsa at Orlando Stadium on Saturday (5.45pm).

Riveiro knows the importance of the clash against SuperSport in their bid to finish second. 

“We are looking forward to facing SuperSport and have a chance to reduce the gap between us and them. It goes without saying that for Pirates it’s very important to find ourselves in a position where we’ll qualify for the Champions League,” he noted.