Riveiro says defeat won’t define Pirates’ season, after Sundowns loss

Obakeng Meletse

Following their humbling defeat at the hands of Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro asserted that the loss will not determine the rest of their season.

The Sea Robbers suffered their third setback in the Betway Premiership campaign with a crushing 4-1 defeat away to the defending champions.

As they tend to their wounds and attempt to rebuild from the rubble, their next stop will be against Baroka FC in the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

The road ahead will be steep and unyielding for Jose Riveiro and his troops, as they now face a nine-point deficit, with one game in hand, to displace the Brazilians from the throne they are clearly not ready to let go of yet.

In a match that carried significant weight for both teams, Pirates conceded two early goals from Grant Kekana and Lucas Ribeiro Costa, leaving them on the hunt at 2-0 down heading into the halftime break.

Deon Hotto pulled one back in the 57th minute, but that only unleashed the best of the home side, as they found two more through Costa just two minutes later. A thunderbolt from Teboho Mokoena returned the Buccaneers back to reality and introspection.

Despite the disruption to their season caused by this costly defeat, Riveiro remained positive, stating that he has moved on from their disappointing outing and has his eyes fully fixed on the upcoming match in the Nedbank Cup.

“We didn’t lose a final (Saturday); we just lost three points,” Riveiro said, after the match.

“It’s game No.14 and we still have to play 16 games in the league; we still have the Nedbank Cup and the CAF Champions League. This is just one game.

“Obviously, it's not nice to lose 4-1 because we came here with the intention to compete and collect points, but we have to go again because we have to play Baroka this weekend, and we want to continue our good record in that competition.”

Riveiro believes the league has a long way to go and that the gap between the two teams can only be judged at the end of the season.

“The difference between the two teams will be shown at the end of the season after the 30 games have been played. We will see if we are at the same level or if the difference between the two teams is big or not.

“(Saturday) was just one game, and it can sometimes go in different directions. Sundowns were better than us in the first half, but if we had scored the chance that Hotto got, the second half would have been a different story.”

“We survived the first 20 minutes of the first half and didn’t concede; the difference is never in one game. They showed much more efficiency with the players in the last line and did not give us a lot of opportunities in transition, but the difference is never the score in one game.

“They were better than us today in terms of finding a way to win the match despite the circumstances, and that was the only difference for me between the two sides.”