Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is upbeat about the Buccaneers’ chances of winning the league title ahead of the start of the Betway Premiership. 

Riveiro, who is now in his third season in charge at the Soweto giants, has won back-to-back Nedbank Cup and MTN8 titles, and he has recently led his troops to their third successive MTN8 final since his appointment. 

However, he has so far not been able to bring one trophy that has been eluding the Sea Robbers – the league title. 

Pirates were last crowned champions of South Africa in the 2011/12 season under the tutelage of Augusto Palacios in a treble-winning campaign. 

Now, the Spanish mentor is determined to try to end the drought after a runners-up finish in the previous two seasons, as he acknowledges the responsibility that comes with managing a club of Pirates’ magnitude. 

“We are Orlando Pirates, it’s one of the responsibilities coming with the job,” Riveiro said. 

“We need to compete in every competition where we are involved. We need to prove why we are there as players and as the coaching staff.” 

Despite his eagerness to bring the league title back to Soweto, the Bucs coach expects a tough campaign ahead, citing that it won’t be easy to collect points with other teams in the division strengthening their squads. 

“We are going to try again, we will try to improve our football because we believe it will take us where we want to be,” he said. 

“It’s going to be a difficult task, it’s going to be a difficult season but at the same time, I think the points are going to be much more expensive this season.” 

Riveiro has dismissed the notion that this is the season where Pirates are going to challenge for the league, saying his charges have been trying to reign supreme since his arrival at the club in June 2022. 

“It’s the third time that we tried to win the league title, it’s been the same in the previous seasons but there was a team that did it much better than everybody else and that’s why we finished in the second position,” he said. 

The 48-year-old coach has stressed the importance of picking up momentum from the very beginning of the league, as his side has consistently struggled in that aspect in the last two campaigns. 

“This season we want to try to have a good start, it’s going to be important,” he stated. 

“It’s one of the moments where in the previous seasons we were not at the level that we should be at, so we want to make sure that we have a very good beginning of the league,” Riveiro noted. 

Riveiro’s charges, who finished second twice in the last two seasons, will travel to Botswana to take on Jwaneng Galaxy in the first leg of the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League on Friday, with their opening league match against Chippa United league game postponed to Wednesday.

Article by Trevor Magoro