Pirates coach Riveiro is wary of Sekhukhune ahead of Cup final

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is hoping the league match they played against Sekhukhune United recently will help him devise plans to beat the same opponents in the Nedbank Cup final at Loftus on Saturday.

The teams played to a 1-1 draw in their penultimate Premier Soccer League (PSL)  fixture at Orlando Stadium two weeks ago.

Riveiro said coach Brandon Truter's Sekukhune, playing in their first cup final, have the potential to be party poopers, and Pirates will have to be cautious as the Spaniard aims to win a second trophy in his first season with Bucs.

Riveiro steered Pirates to the MTN8 title in November and in Saturday's PSL finale, where his team beat AmaZulu 4-0 at Moses Mabhida Stadium, guided his team to a second-placed finish in the Premiership to earn a place in next season's Caf Champions League.

“We know Sekhukhune very well,” said Riveiro.

“Both teams have the same advantage or disadvantage to play [each other] two weeks before the final. Nothing is special.

“Both teams will speculate about the [other's] plans before kickoff. We want to lead the game as soon as possible, assume risk like we always do. There’ll be different games inside the 90 minutes.

“Before we played them, they had a record of 10 clean sheets in 20 games with coach Truter. I know they will put every effort on the field. We also know how important it is for our fans to see us win one more trophy.”

Winning the Nedbank will mean Pirates have at least earned close to half of what Mamelodi Sundowns collected in prize money this season for winning a sixth successive league title (R15m) and reaching the Champions League semifinals (R38m).

Pirates got R8m for winning the MTN8, R7.5m for finishing second on the Premiership log and will add R7m if they beat Sekhukhune in the final on Saturday, taking their tally to R22.5m. 

Sundowns' total prize money is R53m, excluding the R3m they won in the first two quarters (for leading the PSL's Q-innovation log). Pirates won the third quarter (R1.5m) but should take the fourth quarter as well for winning five and drawing two of their last seven matches.

Riveiro agreed the gap between Bucs and Sundowns remains too wide. Sundowns won the league with seven matches to spare and only gave away 20 points out of 90 to finish on 70. Pirates finished 16 points below Sundowns after throwing away 36 points in eight defeats and six draws. 

It’s one thing identifying the shortcomings and another rectifying them.

“We are working on it, and we want to be better next season,” said Riveiro.

“That [catching up with Sundowns] is our obsession right now. We're spending more time in our analysis to find out why we could not maintain the same level. Hopefully, next season we can show a different face.”