Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro challenged his players to bounce back after Saturday’s defat in Stellenbosch when they play again in the DStv Premiership against Royal AM in Soweto on Tuesday.
Pirates, who were last season’s runners-up, were beaten in their opening game of the new league season when Antonio van Wyk scored the only goal of the game at the Danie Craven Stadium.
They now have a quick turn around before their next match with Riveiro saying the players would take matters in their own hands and look to make up for the defeat.
“Look, they know when they don’t perform at the level that you expect them to perform. They know … you don't need to tell them,” said the Pirates coach.
“We know what we are doing, what we are looking for. And when we are not at the level, they are the first ones to usually, you know, say, ‘mea culpa’. We are critical with ourselves. But today, I don't think it's a way to be creative with ourselves. These are the two to make sure that we have a good comeback on Tuesday.”
Pirates face a tough month with eight games in all – including the MTN8 quarterfinal against Sekhukhune United on Saturday and a trip to the Comoros Islands in the first round of the African Champions League.
“Psychologically, I think we are we are ready or I want to think that we are ready and we have 36 players in the squad to try to mitigate the fact that we have to play eight games in August with a long trips and long waits in the airports and all of these things that we're going to find playing in the continent,” Riveiro added.
“But we had time in preseason to prepare ourselves for this scenario. It's easy to say that we want to compete in every competition, so then we need to live up to what we say.
“We are lucky that we have to play on Tuesday again at home and show everyone that the loss to Stellenbosch it was just an accident.”
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