‘The team is playing well,’ says Riveiro after Orlando Pirates draw against Bay

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro described his side as “not the luckiest team in the world” after their goalless DStv Premiership draw against Richards Bay at King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi, Durban, on Saturday.

The Spaniard was left frustrated as he saw his team dominate the entire match but fail to find the back of the net to register what would have been their second win away from home this season. 

The draw left the Buccaneers in eighth place, 17 points behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns. The Brazilians have played three matches fewer than Riveiro's team, which has only scored 11 goals in 11 league matches.

“We take one point though this which is not what we wanted, but we move on to the next one [against Moroka Swallows on December 5],” Riveiro said. “We have not been the luckiest team in the world in the last [attacking] metres.”

Pirates had two shots on target and 10 were wide in a match in which they enjoyed almost 70% of the possession.

“We dropped three points today and we have 15 points [three matches] to fight for before the Christmas break. That [the break] could be a good moment for us to analyse where we are and why.

“If the question is: are we dropping more points than we would like? I think you [the media] could answer the question yourself.”

Indeed, Pirates' current form far from matches what they enjoyed in Riveiro's first few months of this and last few matches of the last campaign. Bucs' late charge in 2022-23 saw them finish second behind Sundowns in the Premiership, a season in which they also won two cup competitions.

Pirates' coach couldn't give a direct answer as to why his team has been misfiring, with the side only managing to score more than one goal in only two of their 11 league matches this season — a 2-0 win over Cape Town City and 4-2 victory against Royal AM.

He said what could have derailed his team from a result against struggling Bay is they started slowly, allowing the home side to boss the game in the first 20 minutes.

“I don't want to sound like a bad loser but our performance today [did not deserve] to collect one point, in my opinion. But we're going back home with one point.

“I'm tired of saying this, but this is a scoring game — if you don't score you don't get points. If you play basketball and throw the ball in the basket you get points. It's simple — and football is the same.

“We won the last two games and today we drew — it's seven points out of nine. Playing a derby [against Kaizer Chiefs] and playing away to Bay, it's not that bad [a return].

“Now if we keep talking about the beginning of the season when we dropped points against AmaZulu and recently against Polokwane City at home, those are a couple of draws that are not pushing us a bit higher on the log.

“But the momentum of the team is good. The team is playing well and we're trying to get the results.

“Today we played without fullbacks [Innocent Maela, Thabiso Monyane, Bandile Shandu and Paseka Mako are all injured]. We played with [Deon] Hotto on the left and [Fortune] Makaringe on the right, trying to do our best.

“The team is still competing and offering a good game every time we go onto the field. So there's nothing wrong, just maybe we need to start the game better. That's a concern for me.”