Jose Riveiro revels in Orlando Pirates never-say-die attitude

Pirates needed a late winner from Monnapule Saleng to claim all three points in their league opener at Orlando Stadium, where they had initially trailed 1-0.

The result extended Bucs’ unbeaten run to seven matches – including five wins and two draws – in all competitions this season, precisely what the Spaniard is after.

"Already in three competitions, and in a short space of time, playing must-win games, it's been tough playing every two or three days," said Riveiro. 

"And we are now already [matchday] minus-2, before we have to complete the job against Jwaneng [Galaxy] on Saturday, which in football is never 'almost done' – that's not real.

"What we need to learn from today game is that we cannot allow the opponent, especially here in Orlando, to deserve to lead the game, and I think Chippa deserved to be ahead because they were looking for it much more than us – it's something that cannot happen.

"But, overall, if you look at the result and our performances, we need to be satisfied with the momentum with the games and distances we've already covered this season, which is not a minor thing."

Riveiro was also happy to see his team have the capacity to force a late winner.

"You can be upset about the performance, and moments of the game, like we are. We were not happy at half-time, even though we got a goal in the last second and changed a little bit the [state of the game]," he added.

"But you can trust me that, if something was not there at half-time, it was happiness. But we then worked hard in the second half, the boys put in effort, we came back, we tried, pushed, and did everything in order to get the goal.

"And nothing comes for free, so we cannot pretend that we want to be perfect all the time – it's not possible, we have to give value to the points. The late goal gives us three points, yes, but the feeling wouldn't change much over our second half, if we got only a point.

"Obviously, with the 2-1 [scoreline], everything looks much better, and we have to capitalise the capacity to come back because it won't be the last time this season that we'll be chasing one goal, and today we showed that we do have the capacity to do it."

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