Orlando Pirates have been Mamelodi Sundowns' bridesmaid for the past two seasons under Jose Riveiro, and the Spaniard is hopeful he will strike gold the third time around.
The Betway Premiership will kick-off on September 14 with Orlando Pirates opening their campaign with a tie against Chippa United in Soweto.
Riveiro is expecting an increased level of competition in the chase for the first trophy under the new sponsors, and he describes chasing the league as one of the club’s mandatory obligations.
"We are Orlando Pirates and it is one of the responsibilities that is coming with the job."
“We need to compete for each and every competition that we are involved in and we need to prove why we are there.
“It is the third time that we are trying to go to the league title. It has been the same but Sundowns did it much better than everyone else and that is why we found ourselves in the second position.
“This season we want to have a good start, it is going to be important because in the last two seasons, we were not at the level that we should be at this stage. Right now we are doing well in the two competitions, we want to participate in the league with the same intensity,”
“We are going to try and improve our football because it is a way that we trust will take us to that place where we want to be. It is going to be a difficult task and a difficult season but I hope that it is going to be much more equal with much more teams involved and I have the feeling that this season the points will be much more expensive,” Riveiro said.
Last season, the Buccaneers finished 23 points behind Sundowns and won just under 50% of their matches. Downs, meanwhile Downs won about 73% of games played out of 30 matches. This time around, Riveiro is optimistic that they can improve their numbers.
“Our intention is to focus on the 30 games and make sure that we collect points more frequently than the last two seasons.
“But I can see more than five teams doing well already and it is going to be a good thing for the fans and I hope we can find ourselves with three or four teams fighting for the title and it will make everything much more intense and much more attractive,” Riveiro said.
☠️ The wait is almost over - League Football is Back!
— Orlando Pirates (@orlandopirates) September 3, 2024
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