Clinical Orlando Pirates impress coach Jose Riveiro with eight goals

The Buccaneers blew away their opponents at Orlando Stadium on Christmas Eve in a game briefly disrupted by inclement weather conditions before striker Tshegofatso Mabasa scored the first hat-trick of the season as the Soweto giants impressed in a nine-goal thriller.

Riveiro gave his summary of a victory that keeps them in the title race with log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

"Difficult beginning of the game besides scoring in the first action. The interruption was a little bit of a problem for both teams. I think good enough, in the first half even though we went through a period that we had some problems to control than in the transitions specifically in situations where we finished with passes from long distances to the box,” Riveiro said.

“And we didn't have time to put the team together to have the opportunity to press and due to that they scored the equalizer. I think we should have gone to half time with an advantage but we were not really precise in the last minutes and they also defended very well in two key situations and I think the second half was so good. 

“The beginning of the second half we were really playing with a lot of determination. We managed to score the goal early that fact gave the guys a lot of confidence to continue the rest of the time. We were really accurate in front of the goal, that's why we got a heavy result."

Pirates do still have a game in hand and can go top of the table if they win all upcoming fixtures, keep a superior goal difference and catch up to Sundowns.

Riveiro says every margin counts.

"In terms of self-confidence for the team, for the players and individuals, it's always important to see what they are capable to do. Like I said also in the post-match interview I think in the first half, you could feel a little bit of intensity in the stands with the 1-1 and some mistakes here and there,” the coach added.

“And I think in the second half they showed a lot of personality to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep looking for solutions and they got a big reward in the end with these amounts of goals.

“I think we also expect to have a very tight race for the top during the season, this is just game number nine but you can see that it's not going to be an easy race and every game counts.

“Every goal that you concede, every goal difference so we have to try to find an advantage, whenever the advantage is presented to us and today, we had an opportunity and I'm happy that the guys didn't speculate and they continued playing very vertical.

“They continued attacking the spaces that were open and ready for us and overall, I think it's a very good performance."