Pirates’ attacking woes continue to haunt them
ORLANDO Pirates’ chronically anaemic attack has been giving their Spanish coach Jose Riveiro sleepless nights and over the weekend, his misery was compounded after his team failed to score in two matches.
It has been the story of his life since Riveiro was appointed coach of Pirates four months ago. The team’s lack of goals is appropriately reflected on the Premiership standings, which show Pirates is the only top-10 placed team that has scored less than 10 goals after 13 matches.
Pirates’ fans would have been heartened by a recent report on the Cameroon football website kick442. com that the crack World Cup-bound Cameroon striker Marou Souaibou had signed a three-year deal with the Mayfair-based club.
However, a few hours later, Souaibou’s Cameroon club Coton Sport Football Club shot down the report with a social media note which read: “Souaibou Marou player of Coton Sport, has been the subject of several desires for a few months, to date, he has not signed any contract with another club.”
Over the weekend, Pirates played out a goalless draw against Kaizer Chiefs, and the match had to be decided on penalties. A few hours later, Pirates suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at the hands of eventual champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the Carling Black Label Cup.
In this match, Pirates were reduced to 10 men after defender Thapelo Xoki was red-carded in the 20th minute for a foul on Sundowns midfielder Surprise Ralani. This setback proved to be the beginning of the end for Pirates.
Riveiro feels there is not much to learn from these matches because the team played two games in quick succession.
“It is difficult to analyse a game that you play immediately after another game,” said Riveiro.
“The fact that we had to play with 10 players, obviously it was an issue. There are many different reasons why we lost the match, but this time they are more particular.
“We couldn’t manage the numerical disadvantage, especially immediately after the red card. We lost control of the game, and they had an excellent group of players attacking us, and they got the advantage quickly after the red card.”
“The responsibility of scoring goals is on all the players and not just the strikers. But there were many positive things that came out.
“We will work on playing better during the break. We need to be better in every department, and better in every scenario.
“We need to be better when our opponents are pressing high and also when we cannot dominate with the ball.
“We have been together for four months now, I think we are a better team than four months ago. The future is going to be interesting for us as a group.
“We will have decent time to rest and do other things with our lives, spend time with families and get the energy to be back soon and be ready to play against Sundowns again on December 31.”
After the World Cup in Qatar, the Dstv Premiership will resume on Friday, December 30. The following day, Sundowns host Pirates in the final league match of 2022.