GOALS MACHINE: Jose Riveiro details Orlando Pirates’ impressive attacking improvement

The Sea Robbers have impressed upfront recently, scoring an incredible 11 goals in their previous two encounters.

Riveiro’s men annihilated Golden Arrows 7-1 in a DStv Premiership match before sweeping aside AmaZulu by 4-2 in a Nedbank Cup quarter-final.

Their return to scoring form is a massive improvement for a side who, earlier in the season, endured a serious drought in front of goal.

Tshegofatso Mabasa, who returned to the club in January from a loan spell with Moroka Swallows, Patrick Maswanganyi, Relebohile Mofokeng, and Kabelo Dlamini are some of the players who have made Riveiro’s men tick up front.

“For me, offensive football has a strong relationship with confidence and that’s the key right now,” Riveiro said after the game against Usuthu.

“For multiple reasons, we are in a good space with confidence, we are comfortable, we are dominating and like I said, capitalizing (on created opportunities).”

Pirates’ inability to capitalise upfront has contributed a lot to the side not being able to keep up with Mamelodi Sundowns in the title race.

The Soweto giants experienced several scenarios where they would dominate matches, only to drop points due to their failure to break down their opponents’ low-block defence.

“One of the key things in this league is to score heavily and then the scenarios change. But it isn’t easy to score more than two goals if you are facing an overloaded defence, for all of us, every team in the league and around the world,” Riveiro added.

“It’s not easy, but when you manage to force the opponent to do something other than defending, I’m not saying that was the case today (on Saturday against AmaZulu), I’m talking about the recent games, then the game is different.

“With the current scenarios, we are comfortable, plus the quality that we have in the team.”

The coach will hope that free-scoring form continues when they host AmaZulu in a league match at Orlando Stadium on Saturday at 17:30.

This will be a grudge match as Usuthu felt they were hard done by some poor officiating in the Nedbank Cup game.