Plenty for Muhsin to worry about from Jose’s slick Pirates

Orlando Pirates are on a high as they meet a Cape Town City with a familiar new sheriff in charge in Muhsin Ertugral. 

If you were to have picked the side that would be cruising in their Caf Champions League group by the start of the New Year, and one that might be struggling, the order would most likely have been reversed between what has transpired for the Buccaneers and Mamelodi Sundowns.

As Pirates meet City in an always tricky encounter at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night, they do so safe in the knowledge that three of their objectives they would have set at the start of the season have been met, or are close to being met.

Bucs have continued their cup successes under Jose Riveiro, notching a first for any team by winning the MTN8 a third time in succession and adding to their four domestic knockout trophies of the Spaniard’s first two seasons in charge.

They put behind them the slow starts in the league that saw them end runners-up to seven-time successive champions Sundowns by huge 16- and 23-point margins. Bucs are in second place in the Premier Soccer League by three points with 27 points from 10 games to Downs’ 30 from 11.

The third objective, one that is close to being clinched, is Pirates are on the verge of their first progression past the Champions League group stage since losing to Al Ahly in the 2013 final.

It was a strong 2024 leg of the season, followed by a positive start to 2025. Bucs are just in form — they have won 17 of 23 matches this campaign (74%), drawn four and lost two.

Riveiro will feel the promise of his first two seasons at Bucs is materialising into something fluent, dangerous and with potential for even greater success.

He praised his team for their outstanding showing by dispatching Stade d’Abidjan 3-0 at Orlando Stadium on Saturday to go to eight points in Group B, needing two or three more points from two matches to reach the quarterfinals.

“Incredible performance from the guys. We saw from the first minute to the last the attitude was of a team that wanted to do something special, that wanted to keep growing as a team, achieving things together,” he said.

Ertugral, a former regular foe of the Buccaneers at many teams including Kaizer Chiefs, and briefly coach of the Buccaneers in a failed five-month stint in 2016, has made a return to the PSL after a six-year absence.

The German-Turk will know he faces a tougher prospect in his second match in charge than the 1-0 home win against Amakhosi on Sunday.

Riveiro was pleased by Pirates’ tempo in attack, producing more than 20 attempts on goal, and application defensively against a Stade he had said, based on Bucs’ 1-1 draw in Abidjan last month, that would be strong on set plays.

“Our performance as a whole was excellent. But that’s the beauty of this game, that you can be dominating and leading 2-0 but suddenly from a corner it’s 2-1 with 15 or 20 minutes to play.

“That’s the situation we wanted to avoid. You can do that in two ways.

“One is by capitalising on all the chances you create, which we couldn’t, and it’s normal — it’s not that easy to score goals. The other is to be disciplined and committed to not wanting to give anything away and the guys applied themselves well.”