Apart from his excellent coaching and the progress he has made with the team, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro might have played a bigger role in planning ahead and improving the club's chances of bringing the R10 million prize money home as Bucs have another chance to win a trophy with the MTN8.
Having defeated Cape Town City in the semi-finals of the prestigious competition, the Buccaneers have reached their fifth cup final under Riveiro, which is more than any other Pirates coach in the PSL era.
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The Spaniard has already led Bucs to triumph on two occasions each in the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup respectively in the last two seasons.
Having managed to sign Deano van Rooyen from Stellenbosch, who has been one of the influential players in coach Steve Barker's team, and after Pirates secured the services of highly-rated Performance Analyst Devon O'Brien, Riveiro may feel that part of the job has been done to improve the team.
Although Van Rooyen is unavailable for Bucs as he is cup-tied, having featured in the opening match of the MTN8 for Stellenbosch against TS Galaxy, his absence from the line-up for the opponents could work in favour of the Soweto giants, while O'Brien should be able to assist hugely in the planning against the club he had previously been with and knows better than any of his Pirates colleagues.
While Stellies' quality cannot be doubted after the club beat Mamelodi Sundowns in the semi-finals, some may feel that without certain players and members of the technical team that had left, the Cape winelands' outfit could struggle against an equally good Pirates side.
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Apart from Van Rooyen and O'Brien, Barker's side are also without Iqraam Rayners, who was sold to Sundowns, as well as Anicet Oura and Antonio van Wyk who have secured overseas moves.
Talking about the Pirates technical team ahead of the season, Riveiro said, speaking to journalists, "We have numbers more than enough in the technical staff, even last season. We are all going to miss Sergio, because we were really used to working together. He was a very important person in our technical team, but we have talent also in the coaching staff, in our structure. There're many different recruitments in the team, but the club will announce that when it's time to do it."
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