After their recent struggles, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has given up on their hopes of winning the DStv Premiership title.
In the league on Friday night at Orlando Stadium, Pirates and Polokwane City drew 1-1. Given Mashikinya’s late goal for the Limpopo team cancelled out Patrick Maswanganyi’s goal.
Riveiro’s pre-match remarks that they may still catch up to log leaders and defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns were completely derided by the disastrous outcome.
With one game remaining, the Pirates behind the Brazilians by fifteen points, who are favorites to win a record-breaking seventh straight championship.
Following the Polokwane match, Riveiro, who had been a furious figure on the touchline as he watched his team go three games without a league victory, made a bold statement on their hopes of winning the title.
When asked if his side might still contend for the championship this year, the Spaniard answered, “No!”
Riveiro isn’t concerned about points at the moment since he has seen how difficult it is for his team to win games in a row in the league and thinks that scoring is the main cause of their issues.
Are you worried about the points? I don’t need to worry about the points. It’s a figure, something abstract. Therefore, I can’t worry,” Riveiro countered.
“I may have concerns about the areas that we need to improve on this week and that we are not performing well. The goals are not as simple or frequent for us as we would want.
That’s a disadvantage in a football-like game. I am preoccupied and unconcerned with issues. In a game, we have to make sure we get fresh problems, not the same ones.
Zakhele Lepasa began the season with 10 goals in eight games, thus scoring was not the Pirates’ biggest problem in the early going.
