For the past seven seasons, the recipe for league success has been safeguarded at Chloorkop. Jose Riveiro aims to discover that secret as the Brazilians have been untouchable in the top flight for close to a decade.
While Sundowns have been an unshakable and immovable force, rendering the Premiership to almost a farmers league – a football term used that describes a division where one team is dominant – Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has established himself as a cup specialist.
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Riveiro won four cup competitions in two seasons, and is now in his third campaign. The Spaniard’s Pirates side are already in the MTN8 semi-final, but he admits that he would love to unlock the door that houses the secret formula of winning the league.
“I would like to know what is the secret so we can do the same thing when we play in the league for three points,” said Riveiro.
“I’m sure there are many components but we have to not think about what [competition] we are playing but we are playing for Pirates and the responsibility is always the same,” he added.
The Buccaneers currently hold a dozen top-eight competition titles and are the second most successful team behind Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs, who have 15.
Pirates are the only side to win this competition back-to-back under the disguise of the current title sponsor, and now stand a chance to be the first outfit to claim the top-eight three times on the trot since it was launched in 1972.
Be that as it may, Riveiro knows that the big fish is the league and he has also paid much attention to the CAF Champions League where they are set to face Disciples FC of Madagascar in the preliminary round this month.
“It is true that so far we have managed to have very special nights in the cup, it is a decent record. It is because we are in the right space to be able to do these types of things,” Riveiro explained.
“These competitions are helping us to understand how good we can be when we are in the right place and the right space.
“But we have a big challenge in the cups because everybody is expecting us to play in the final. We also have a beautiful challenge to go to the group stages in the CAF Champions League, which we could not do last season.
“We also want to be competitive in the league until the end. There are no secrets [to win the league]. We need to find the formula to keep our players motivated for each and every game,” he added.
