Pirates boss Jose Riveiro at his wits' end over team's shocking exit from the Champions League

Distraught Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro had a difficult time explaining his side’s shocking exit from the Caf Champions League at the preliminary stage.

Riveiro was at his wits’ end about as he tried to make sense of their poor run in the tournament less than a week before the crunch MTN8 final against Mamelodi Sundowns in Durban on Saturday, October 7.

For a man who is usually good at suppressing his emotions, Riveiro looked as if he had the world on his shoulders after Pirates were knocked out of the continental tournament by Botswana’s Jwaneng Galaxy on Friday in the race for the group stages.

Pirates won the second leg of the preliminary round at Orlando Stadium 1-0, thanks to an “ugly goal” by Evidence Makgopa but went on to lose the game 5-4 through penalties.

That is because Galaxy also won the first leg with the same scoreline in Botswana and their excellent game management at Orlando Stadium helped them stun the former African champions.    

“There’s not much to decode about the game ... It's a difficult game to explain from the scoring perspective,” Riveiro said.

“I think the guys’ performance tonight was more than enough to drive us to the group stages but for reasons that are difficult to explain at this moment, straight after the game, we couldn’t make it in the 90 minutes and then in the penalties anything could happen.

“It’s part of the game. It's something that we have to do better, we have to dominate as well and today we couldn’t,” he said.

After starting the 2023/2024 campaign as a free scoring side, Pirates have gone blunt in front of goals where they managed to score just one goal in their last four outings. 

It’s not lack of creating chances for Riveiro’s men, but their surprising lack of sharpness upfront coupled with poor decision making from their attackers.

“We started the game with a one goal disadvantage, but I think ... I don’t know what we need to do,” Riveiro said.

“It’s difficult to explain that in the last four games we scored only one goal and the way we did it today was a rebound or ugly goal.

“It’s a difficult day. It's not acceptable, our team is built and prepared to go to Champions League group stage so we cannot accept this result and only say that we were unlucky.

“Nobody feels proud in our group about the result and the fact that we are not going to the group stages. We have to accept it, analyse it and we have to take the responsibility, the coach more than anybody else.

“We need to have proper reflection about our participation in this competition because it was not good at all.”

The Soweto giants’ run doesn’t inspire confidence ahead of their sold-out MTN8 final showdown with invincible Mamelodi Sundowns at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, October 7. 

When Pirates faced similar scoring challenges last season, the club brought in highly rated striker coach Scott Chickelday on a short-term contract, and it seemed to have solved their problems. 

It will be interesting to see if Pirates would go the same route again to put the crisis to bed again.