The experience gained in the past two seasons, where Orlando Pirates finished second behind seven-time successive Premiership winners Mamelodi Sundowns, will help them in the 2024-2025 campaign, according to Bucs coach Jose Riveiro.
The Spanish coach has brought Pirates cup success, with four wins out the past five domestic knockout tournaments. In the league, Bucs, especially last campaign, hoped to push Sundowns a lot closer than their 16 and 23-point margins under Riveiro.
At the launch of the Betway Premiership in Sandton on Tuesday, Riveiro said no-one should take for granted the lessons his side learnt chasing Downs for two years, and that is what gives him hope they can match the Brazilians pound for pound in 2024-2025. “We’ve gained a lot of lessons each day,” Riveiro said.
“It’s our third season together, and we know how difficult it is to finish in the top. The league has been dominated by the same team in the past seven years, collecting a huge amount of points.
Riveiro expects ‘better teams’, including Pirates, to push Sundowns
The experience gained in the past two seasons, where Orlando Pirates finished second behind seven-time successive Premiership winners Mamelodi Sundowns, will help them in the 2024-2025 campaign, according to Bucs coach Jose Riveiro.
The Spanish coach has brought Pirates cup success, with four wins out the past five domestic knockout tournaments. In the league, Bucs, especially last campaign, hoped to push Sundowns a lot closer than their 16 and 23-point margins under Riveiro.
At the launch of the Betway Premiership in Sandton on Tuesday, Riveiro said no-one should take for granted the lessons his side learnt chasing Downs for two years, and that is what gives him hope they can match the Brazilians pound for pound in 2024-2025. “We’ve gained a lot of lessons each day,” Riveiro said.
“It’s our third season together, and we know how difficult it is to finish in the top. The league has been dominated by the same team in the past seven years, collecting a huge amount of points.
“It's every club’s responsibility to make it [the league] more competitive, to have more teams fighting for the top. That’s what I think is going to happen because you have better prepared teams with better squads. The competition looks more balanced, but let’s see once the games start.”
Riveiro said Pirates, who have been plagued by slow starts in the league in his tenure, have to start playing like a team aware of its capability of beating every side.
“We want to finish better than the last time [and improve] in the football we want to play. We want to collect more points and make sure we are among the teams fighting for top spot in the last stage of the season.”
Besides attempting to win the league, Riveiro agreed that going far in the Caf Champions League is one of their ambitions this season. Pirates again face Jwaneng Galaxy — on September 14 away and September 20 at home — in the second preliminary round stage where they bombed out to the Botswana outfit last year.
“For sure it’s one of our objectives this season. We want to go through, and we want to enjoy it and be part of group stages. To make that possible, we know we’ll face a difficult, tricky team. They showed it last year, and this season we’ll try to be more prepared and be a better team and make possible one of our dreams, which is to go through to the group stages.”
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