Africa-Press – South-Africa. Orlando Pirates will complete a remarkably busy week in which they qualified for the semifinal stage of the Caf Champions League for the first time since 2013 by hosting a fresh Marumo Gallants in the Nedbank Cup on Sunday.
While Pirates will have just three days to prepare for Sunday’s Nedbank Cup match, Gallants have had a full week to prepare after a 1-1 draw against SuperSport United in the Betway Premiership.
An exhausted looking Pirates coach Jose Riveiro acknowledged this when he was talking about Sunday’s match in which Bucs will be continuing their attempt to win the cup for the third time in a row — something they did in 1973, 1974 and 1975.
The other club to have won this cup three times consecutively was Pirates’ Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs, who achieved that feat in 1981, 1982 and 1984 (there was no competition in 1983).
Pirates beat MC Alger (MCA) of Algeria 1-0 on aggregate in Orlando on Wednesday to set up a semifinal clash against Egyptian club Pyramids FC, with the first leg taking place in Orlando next Friday (April 18).
The Champions League and Nedbank Cup are not the only trophies the departing coach will be looking to add to the five he’s already won with Pirates since he was appointed in July 2022.
Pirates are also in the battle to win the league with the race between them and seven-time successive champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
Talking to the media on Thursday, after their dramatic game which ended with Pirates fans descending on the pitch with a mission to save their players from MCA’s staff and players who couldn’t stomach the loss, Riveiro highlighted how challenging this week has been for him and his players to have to quickly turn their attention to Sunday’s match.
“Obviously we don’t work in the way we want to operate as the coaching stuff due to the schedule. I’m sitting here after a terrible game yesterday (Pirates were dominated but held on to beat MCA 1-0 on aggregate).
“In terms of energy and emotions, you can imagine.
“Just a few hours later I’m sitting here talking about the next one. There’s no time for training or good preparation anymore. It’s about just making sure the players are ready and us also, we need a certain time to recover emotionally to sit down and analyse and decide the way we want to face these new challenges.
“We try to take care of ourselves as well as we can, even though as coaches we don’t run 12km there on the field in every game. You can see that the level of energy (in the players) is not high every day.”
The Pirates coach said he’s had to push his players to continue training while focusing on matches, even though he can see they’re looking tired after a season in which they’ve already defended the MTN8 to win it for the third time in a row.
“It’s our responsibility to find a way. If we’re tired, we have to do it tired, there’s no excuses. The fact that we’re playing a lot of games is good news for us, it’s a consequence of being competitive and consistent.
“We have to deal with it (their success), because it’s a consequence of being in a competitive team and a competitive club. I will never complain about it because there’s nothing you can do.
“Football is going in this direction and it’s not going to change. We just have to adapt to the circumstances and try to continue being competitive in what we do.”
Pirates’ match against Gallants on Sunday will kick off at 3pm, with the second semifinal between Chiefs and Sundowns taking place at Loftus at 6pm on the same day.
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