Bucs will not be taking All Stars lightly in cup

The Nedbank Cup has already come up with one big shock, and that’s something that Pirates coach Jose Riveiro (below) will be looking to avoid when his side take on lower league side All Stars FC at the Wits Football Stadium today.

Pirates face the Motsepe Foundation Championship side in the first round of the Ke Yona Cup, and Riveiro won’t be taking things lightly going into this fixture, especially with the Buccaneers looking to bounce back to winning ways after their loss to Mamelodi Sundowns in their previous game in the DStv Premiership.

SuperSport United already paid the price of perhaps underestimating a lower league team when they lost to Dondol Stars on Wednesday.

The Bucs mentor is looking at going all out to win the match and progress to the next stage of the competition, with the ultimate intention of reaching the final, as they also managed when they won this season’s MTN8.

“It’s a different competition but same responsibility. Competitions like these give all the 32 teams a chance to dream of a beautiful night,” said Riveiro ahead of the match.

“We are facing the tournament with a lot of respect for our opponent. Our objective is to play as much as possible in the competition. We want to hopefully find ourselves in the final. But we have to go stepby-step and the first step is to deal with a difficult team in All Stars.”

Riveiro says he is used to such competitions, and he is well aware that it gives the clubs from lower leagues a chance to dream of lifting the cup.

“This type of competition brings the possibility for all of us, the PSL teams and teams that are coming from the lower leagues, to dream about having beautiful nights like what happened yesterday (Wednwsday when Dondol beat SuperSport),” Riveiro cautioned.

“It happens everywhere, even in Spain.”