'We're giving reasons to be viewed as title contenders' - Riveiro relishes title race

Orlando Pirates coach José Riveiro admitted the way his team were doing things this season gave hope they can finally go all the way to win what would be their first league title since the 2011/2012 season.

“It's true that the team is giving more reasons to the people right now that we can make it and that's a very good new, but there's nothing new in terms of responsibility,” Riveiro said after Wednesday's 2-1 win over Sekhukhune United at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium, where Deon Hotto and Makhehlene Makhaula were on point for them, while Linda Mntambo netted for the hosts.

“Having the opportunity to win in places where you usually don't win gives you extra hope to say, 'We're going the right way'. We knew how difficult it is to play away from home against Sekhukhune ... our last results here confirm that difficulty [Sekhukhune beat them 2-1 at home last season].”

Even so, Riveiro insisted that their purple patch, which has seen them occupy the second spot on the table, doesn't put them under further pressure. The Spaniard also suggested he relishes the intense title fight against perennial champions Mamelodi Sundowns, who also top the standings.

“It's the same pressure since I arrived here [in July 2022]. Coaching Pirates and coaching a champion team, a winning team, everybody is expecting us to improve the history of the club to get titles ... we are trying,” Riveiro said. “We're having a fantastic beginning of the season. We're in February, but we can still talk about the beginning of the league because it's game number 14 [referring to Wednesday's game against Sekhukhune].”

Bucs and Down meet in what promises to be a titanic clash at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday at 3.30pm.

“At the same time, we are fighting with other good teams, and one of them is an excellent team ... champions for the last seven years [referring to Downs], so even though we have an excellent beginning of the season, we're still some points behind but we are not going to stop. We are going to keep fighting, performing and hopefully we're going to have enough luck every week to get the results,'' Riveiro stated.

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