Orlando Pirates’ coach Jose Riveiro says they are not setting their sights on the Carling Knockout Cup because they want to make up for lost ground.
Instead, they want to get their hands on the elusive silverware to live up to the lofty expectations which come with working at the club.
Pirates will begin their Carling campaign at Orlando Stadium against to newbies Magesi FC at 3pm.
Pirates recently won their third successive MTN8 crown under Riveiro, taking his domestic cup triumphs to five out of six trophies, having bagged back-to-back Nedbank Cups as well.
The Spaniard’s only blemish in cup competition was in the inaugural Carling last season as they incredibly crashed out in the second round.
And so given their menacing act in cups, Pirates are all but expected to rectify their mistakes in the second edition of the “beer cup” and go all the way in December.
But Riveiro says it’s not about that nor him but:
“This is not about me – it’s about Orlando Pirates playing in the Carling (Knockout) Cup with the intention to play in every possible game.
“This is due to the pressure that’s coming from the position in which we are in. That’s the situation every time, we want to play every game in the tournament – one by one.”
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Pirates are favourites this afternoon. But such is Riveiro’s humility, he says they’ll undermine the newbies at their own peril.
“The first opponent we’ll face in the tournament is Magesi. We are fully focused on this fixture, and that’s it,” Riveiro said.
“But there’s no pressure now just because we managed to win the MTN8; the expectations are high on us from the first day. And we are ready to answer those expectations with good performances.
“The results are not in our control. We just need to give our all against Magesi, respect the opponent and the tournament. We are playing at home.”
Pirates have given their all since the start of the season. That they are unbeaten in 11 games following nine wins and two draws is not by fluke.
They’ve adopted a never-say-die attitude which has seen them rise from the dead even when the opponent thought they’d never come back as they’ve left it late at times.
Pirates’ positive mentality hasn’t seen them pose a serious challenge for all the domestic cups, but for the coveted Betway Premiership as well. They’ve won three in three in the league so far.
“We are feeling good,” Riveiro said. “We are feeling capable of replicating our best performance almost every day – whatever the schedule is asking of us to do.
“We feel capable of coming back when the game is asking of us. I think it’s about mentality. We have that level of confidence right now.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t go through difficult moments this season, and we must be ready for that. We must be stable even when those moments come.”
Pirates seem to be stable all round. Players from the bench have made telling cameos, including Mofokeng, Tshegofatso Mabasa and Kabelo Dlamini winning the MTN8 from the bench two weeks ago.
“I think the impact of the players coming from the bench is general in the big clubs in every league, and it’s normal,” he said.
“Right now, we have the advantage of doing five subs per game which is something that started during Covid -19 – it was not always like that.
“Secondly, when you are in a big team you have big players on the bench. In the final, we had the luxury to introduce players like Mabasa, Mofokeng and others – you know what I mean.
“A recent research shows that there was a huge impact from the subs in the goals scored in the last European Championships. So there’s nothing exceptional at Pirates right now.”