Riveiro Breaks His Silence

Just like any coach who can make a comment after his teaming getting semi-final’s fixture, Orlando Pirates FC head coach Jose Riveiro has finally broken his silence after getting Kaizer Chiefs FC in the next round.

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is optimistic his team can beat rivals Kaizer Chiefs to make it to the Nedbank Cup final.

“The fact that Pirates are in the semifinals will keep the competition interesting, we are the team everyone enjoys watching,” Riveiro said as quoted by Sowetan.

“I hope it is going to be good for all of us to have two good semifinals with good teams. With a lot of fans in the stadiums. I believe we can beat them and play in the final. Let’s see who is the best one to go until the end.

“They have had the upper hand against us in the league, but this is a cup game, hopefully we can get one over them this time.”

“We faced a good team and I think a couple of Premier Soccer League teams can tell you [that Dondol are not pushovers]. “It is difficult to play against teams from lower leagues.

However, Kaizer Chiefs FC head coach Arthur Zwane has also made a comment on their semi-final’s fixture;

He said Orlando Pirates FC’s game is not going to be easy, but he promised that Amakhosi will beat them.

“It’s not going to be easy as everyone thinks, Because cup games are totally different to league matches. But as I said, we will treat every game with respect and unfortunately this one is not like any other games – there is a lot at stake.

“If we want to beat Pirates, we are expected to be on top of them and make sure that we win the game, I think the excitement comes from knowing that we are playing Pirates and they are also doing well, that will be good for South African football as well, because we are also finding our way up’ I think it is going to be one game that is very good to watch. Unfortunately this one we have to be ready and take the game to them and make sure that they are the first one to make a mistake and we capitalize on that.”

On the previous Soweto derby where by Kaizer Chiefs FC won 1-0, former Cheifs winger blamed some Pirates players.

Khanye: Lorch, Dzvukamanja, Saleng, Pule, Ndlondlo were nowhere to be seen, he is what he said;

Former Kaizer Chiefs hitman Junior Khanye has criticised five Orlando Pirates players for underperforming during the Soweto derby on Saturday.

“Orlando Pirates players were nowhere to be seen,” Khanye said on iDiskiTV.

“Thembinkosi Lorch, Terrence Dzvukamanja, Vincent Pule, Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo and Monnapule Saleng were all off!

“All the players who were supposed to be attackers for Orlando Pirates were off,” he added.

“Their tempo, when they had the ball, was poor. They were walking instead of running.

“How can you score when you are walking? Pirates were nowhere to be seen.”

Before Pirates getting a defeat against Chiefs that day, Khanye analysed that Chiefs will struggle to stop the likes of Monnapule Saleng, Kermit Erasmus and Ndabaithetha Ndlondlo. Unfortunately, Chiefs won.

“We must not forget that Chiefs will be playing against an Orlando Pirates side that have recently beaten the champions and they have highly-rated players in Ndlondlo, Saleng and Kermit that are very dangerous,” Khanye said.

“He [Saleng] plays with high intensity and he has got a good technique and you can see that from the second goal he scored against Sundowns,” Khanye said.

“And Kermit complements him because he plays as false number nine and he runs away and distracts the defenders and Saleng comes with his speed to exploit that space.

“He is not a very skilful player, but he has enough skill to eliminate a person in front of him. He is using his skill very wisely.”