Jose Riveiro’s plan for Stellies transitions

The two teams meet in the Wafa-Wafa final at a sold-out Moses Mabhida stadium on Saturday evening (18:00), with Riveiro fully aware of the dominance of Stellies over Bucs from last season.

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Pirates lost three of their four matches against Steve Barker’s side last season in all competitions.

The Spanish born coach is also wary of the threat their opponents possess in transitions.

''We have to accept Stellenbosch the way they are, we respect them big time. We faced Stellenbosch four times last season, then in the semi-finals and in our two games in the league, we beat them once. It took 94 minutes at Athlone to beat them, and we didn't get the results in the other games.

So we know very well what it means to play Stellenbosch and we to have accept it, that there will be where we are permanently under threat because there's going to be transitions - it doesn't matter how good or how well we will prepare ourselves, we know it is coming,'' said Riveiro.  

Stellies have proven to be a team that is very dangerous not only in transitions but also with different variations of their play.

Riveiro lists different players in their team like Sanele Barns, Bradley Mojela, Devin Titus, Jayden Adams and Andre de Jong and the danger they pose to the opponents with their aggression on the ball.

''We know Barns, we know Titus, we know De Jong, we know Mojela, we know Jayden. We know the capacity they have to play forward, we know how aggressive they are, in the counter press they are the top team in the PSL. Mojela is a top striker, it tells you quite a lot about the aggression they have when they lose the ball and how aggressive they are running forward in a moment when they steal the ball. So we know that is one of the moments we need to control close to perfection - if we do it we will be close to winning the match, if we don't do it the results will be compromised,'' added Riveiro.

 Pirates have not lost a final since Riveiro’s arrival in the country four years ago. This will be cup final number four for the Buccaneers under the 49-year-old and he’s emphasizing the importance of also imposing themselves on Stellies with their own style of play.

''It doesn't mean that we are going to deny ourselves possibly a chance to play football, we have the team that we have and we play the brand of football that we play. We will try to do it again in the final, accepting the challenge, like I said - everything we will be on the ball I need position. The threat will be there all the time, but it is important to not panic when it happens, to understand that if they have one or two transitions it's going to be a normal thing in the game.

And transition is something that you can neutralise in many different moments of the process of the transition, sometimes they will get time and space to run but it doesn't mean that the final action is going to be dangerous. So we have to trust in ourselves, we have to trust in our football and at the sametime make sure that on the day we have the capacity to neutralise the strength of the opponent,'' he expressed.

Last season Stellies won the inaugural Carling Knockout trophy at the Moses Mabhida stadium, beating TS Galaxy on penalties after Pirates had earlier been knocked out by Richards Bay FC.

But with Bucs’ cup pedigree, many will see them as favourites heading to this final, but Riveiro says in their dressing room that mentality doesn’t exist.

During Pirates’ warm up sessions before their training session at Rand stadium this morning, as they started preparations for the final, there was a lot of emphasis on strength and conditioning.

Led by the club’s Strength and Conditioning coach Helmi Gueldich, the defending champions were not leaving any stone unturned in preparing for one of the well-conditioned in the PSL’s Premier Division. Riveiro says this game will require a lot of hard work.