With Orlando Pirates competing in the semi-finals of both the Nedbank Cup and the CAF Champions League, head coach Jose Riveiro pointed out that the team’s packed fixture schedule has left little time for training.
The Spaniard emphasized that the focus now lies in managing player mentality and readiness to face the challenges ahead.
Speaking at the Nedbank Headquarters in Sandton ahead of the Buccaneers’ semi-final against Marumo Gallants on Sunday, Riveiro acknowledged the intense nature of their current schedule.
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“Obviously, we don’t operate, we don’t work in a way that we would like to do as a coaching staff anymore due to the schedule. I’m sitting here after a terrible game yesterday in terms of energy, emotions, and you can imagine just a few hours later we are sitting here talking about the next one. There is no time for training and good preparation anymore," Riveiro told the media.
He further elaborated on the challenges of balancing physical and emotional recovery for both the players and the coaching team.
"It is about just making sure that the players are ready to go again, and us also, we need certain time to recover from the games emotionally, cognitively in order to sit down, analyse, decide the way we want to face this new challenge. We try to take care of ourselves as good as we can even though we, as coaches, are not running 12 km on the field. You can imagine that the levels of energy are not high every day, so it is our responsibility to find a way. If we are tired, we have to do it tired. There are no excuses. The fact that we are playing many games is good news for us, very good news and a consequence of being competitive and being consistent. And we have to deal with it. This is the consequence of being in a competitive team, a competitive club and I will never complain about that because there is nothing you can do. Football is going in this direction, and it is not going to change, and we need to adapt ourselves to the circumstances and try to be competitive no matter what,” Riveiro told journalists.
Riveiro also reflected on how Bucs’ participation in the CAF Champions League has helped the team grow and gain confidence, despite the obvious additional fixtures to play in.
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“We took this continental test to understand where we are as a group. I think we managed to go through 14 games in that competition, solid and conceding only four goals so it says quite a lot about how competitive we were in that maximum level and the difficult test. We are trying to use that confidence for the rest of the competitions as well to understand that if we are capable to be that good in that space we can be at the same level when we are playing here at home. So far, in the Nedbank, it was the same type of approach of trying to play every game like these kind of games which is a final."
Drawing lessons from both success and setbacks, Riveiro advised that maintaining focus and energy is key.
"In terms of confidence, every competition is helping us this season to get better even when things are not going well like it happened in one of the competitions when we got out in the first round. That game helped us understand that if you are not good enough on the day then the competition is over for you. Winning is also helpful to get fresh as soon as possible and we are trying to get the energy from every result," Riveiro observed.
Orlando Pirates will host Marumo Gallants in the Nedbank Cup semi-final on Sunday, with kickoff scheduled for 15h00. This game is expected to take place at Orlando Stadium, but the CAF Champions League semi against Pyramids FC won't take place at their home stadium.
Orlando Stadium is prebooked on 18 April, so now, FNB Stadium is expected to host the CAF Champions League fixture.
