Orlando Pirates aim to get their house in order before MTN8 final

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro says his team needs to learn from the mistakes they made in their Soweto derby defeat ahead of Saturday's MTN8 final against AmaZulu.

Pirates lost 1-0 to Kaizer Chiefs in the DStv Premiership clash at FNB Stadium in Soweto on Saturday.

Former Pirates youth protégé Yusuf Maart scored a spectacular goal from his own half after he spotted Bucs goalkeeper Siyabonga Mpotshane off his line.

This was a concerning result for Pirates ahead of facing AmaZulu in the climax of the MTN8 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday (6pm).

Riveiro refused to put the blame on his players and took responsibility for the defeat.

“My players did everything to execute the plan and get a good result,” the Bucs' coach said.

“You cannot imagine how important it was for them to get these three points. What we need to analyse is why it didn’t work.

“That’s my responsibility, that’s my job and we need to learn from this defeat in order not to repeat them [the mistakes] in the coming games.

“There’s never one reason why you lose a game. There are always multi factors and some of them are things you cannot control.

“I think it [should have been] a 0-0 game, but we suffered a beautiful goal and we have to accept it and move on.”

The Buccaneers were without suspended midfield engine Miguel Timm, but Riveiro said they didn’t lose the game because of his absence.  

“No, we didn’t miss anyone. We missed ourselves [as a team] and the rhythm we are used to play with. We need to analyse why we couldn’t to make it better next time. It’s going to be important to do it better next time.”

Some of Pirates' players were playing their first Soweto derby, which was viewed by about 90,000 spectators at a sold-out FNB, but Riveiro doesn’t believe the stage was too big for his charges.

“I think we are used to playing in front of these types of crowds. We played in Durban in front of 37,000 and in Polokwane in front of 45 000.

“I don’t think there’s an issue about that. Obviously, the atmosphere is amazing [in the derby]. It is nice to be involved in something like this even though it’s not comfortable as a coach to do your job [in it]. It’s crazy how loud the crowd is.”