Cup specialist Jose Riveiro chasing his third back-to-back MTN8 title

Pirates, who are the defending champions, having won the last two editions of this trophy, host SuperSport United in their first-round game at Orlando Stadium tomorrow evening (18:00).

Riveiro, who has won all the four cup finals he’s been to with Pirates, wants to continue with the good memories eSgodini.

"Absolutely, we have we have fantastic memories of this competition together in two different seasons. It's the third one, it's an opportunity again to show how competitive we can be in these types of games,” Riveiro said.

“An opportunity to little by little start defending our last trophy but yeah again, tough game, knockout game, quarterfinals. We go through or we go home, so we have to be good on the day and be competitive and make sure that everything is under control on Saturday."

READ: Themba Zwane speaks on Rulani Mokwena’s Sundowns exit

In the past two seasons, Pirates have finished as runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns in the league title race, and this is owing to their excellent second-round performance.

Riveiro, who is eager to end Pirates' more than ten-year league title drought, knows that they have to address their early season challenges this year.

"It's important not to repeat the mistakes that we made in the past. We need a strong beginning of the season when we go to the league, which is not the game that is occupying us for this weekend,” he added.

“We have to still focus on the MTN8, take every game one by one, each and every game is going to be important, no matter which competition we are playing, we are playing for a win, we are playing to represent Pirates and our focus right now is nowhere near the league, we are focusing on the MTN8."