Riveiro not entertaining thoughts of another early Caf exit for Pirates

How big a blow would it be to Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro and his charges if they fail to progress to the second preliminary round of the Caf Champions League?

That was the last question the Pirates coach wanted to hear at Orlando Stadium on Thursday morning when he faced the media ahead of Friday's second leg of Pirates' first preliminary round tie against Madagascan outfit Disciples FC, who held Bucs to a shock 0-0 draw away on Sunday.

With Pirates fans yet to fully recover from being stopped by Botswana side Jwaneng Galaxy from reaching last season's group stages, the last thing Riveiro wanted to hear was anyone doubting his team can do better this time round. 

“You want to make a headline with whatever I say [in response],” was Riveiro's terse reply, aware he had little room to duck the question after seeing his side fail to score in a first leg played in Mauritius due to lack of a venue in Madagascar.

“We have to make it possible that we're going through to the next round. We're preparing ourselves to win the match. We don't want to win the game 10-0 — we just need to win the game.

“We're prepared, we're playing home and we're confident. We know much more about the opponents than one week ago.

“We're a bunch of coaches and players who are extremely optimistic about winning every game. Tomorrow [Friday] we going to try to offer a good game for our fans and make sure we are in the next round.”

A win for Pirates at Orlando (kickoff 7.30pm), may see them facing Jwaneng again in the second preliminary round. The Botswana outfit, coached by South African Morena Ramoreboli, lost 1-0 to Namibian side African Stars in their first leg, and will aim to overturn that result in Gaborone on Saturday. 

Riveiro said he has all his players available for Friday's game and is sure playing in familiar surroundings will make a huge difference after his players struggled to control a first leg played on an artificial surface.

“We have to take the opportunity presented playing at home in front of our fans. We need a victory and we don't want any more to talk about the conditions we experienced five days ago.

“It's another opportunity, another game that starts 0-0. If we get a victory we're in the next round.”

On paper Pirates should win against a semi-professional team considered with part-time players that is only making its third appearance in the Champions having bombed out in the preliminary stages before.

While Riveiro is new to this kind of competition, he says last season's experience rammed home the differences between the Champions League and South African domestic football, where he's steered Pirates to four cup trophies in two years.

“This is a difficult competition — that I myself know and the players know it's even more [difficult] than in the PSL.

“To succeed in this competition we need to have capacity to adapt to many different circumstances and scenarios that we'll find abroad — unexpected situations, difficult conditions in terms of the services you find and approach of the opponents.

“Sometimes with the lack of information about the opponent, players who you don't expect to play suddenly are playing against you and you didn't even know them before. So there's a lot of things that can happen in this competition but it's always difficult to deal with unexpected situations.

“Our job as coaches is to try to reduce the uncertainly for the players and make them know as much as possible about the situations they will find on the field. In these competitions, especially in these stages, sometimes it's a challenge but resistance, resilience and capacity to go through these obstacles become the most important.”