Fifa break came at wrong time, says Riveiro as Pirates prepare to take on Spurs in Carling Knockout

The recent Fifa break came at a bad time for Orlando Pirates. 

The Buccaneers had their momentum disrupted as they had to take a break shortly after they lifted the MTN8 with a penalty shoot-out win over Mamelodi Sundowns at Moses Mabhida Stadium. 

Pirates coach Jose Riveiro would have preferred to continue with full training and playing to take full advantage of the psychological advantage of having won a major trophy against rivals Sundowns. 

Instead, Riveiro had to prepare for Friday night’s important Carling Knockout last 16 clash without key players Richard Ofori, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Paseka Mako and Zakhele Lepasa who were away with their national teams. 

“I have said it several times that Fifa breaks usually come at sensible and delicate moments during the season,” he said. 

“The fact that you don’t have the competition coming soon enough, sometimes it creates disconnection. Let me put it this way, you come from a victory in the final and you want to play and use the momentum. When you are winning, you don’t want to stop because of the Fifa break.” 

Riveiro said clubs who possibly welcomed the Fifa break are those who have not been doing well, such as their opponents Spurs who have lost their opening eight DStv Premiership matches. 

“Usually, you want to have the Fifa break when you are not getting the results and you need time to rebuild or change things. In our case, the challenge is not to lose momentum. 

“(Not losing momentum) That was the obsession during this period and we did it very well. We had a few absentees at training like Sibisi, Mako, Ofori and Lepasa. 

“But we have enough quality in the team and we trained with 26 players, so the level at training was very good. At Pirates we get call-ups from different national teams and we are used to losing at least five, six or even seven players during these Fifa breaks.

"We are used to those situations and it is not a problem for us to find proper rhythm and quality in our sessions."