Riveiro completes a second successive league double over Chiefs

Orlando Pirates didn’t have to dish out their A game to complete a second successive league double over their Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs in a Betway Premiership match at the FNB stadium yesterday.

Goals by Evidence Makgopa and Relebohile Mofokeng in either half gave Jose Riveiro his fifth Soweto derby victory to equal a record only held by former Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter in this fixture.

But the game itself didn’t live up to the spectacle that was expected, though Pirates did well to bounce back after conceding an early goal.

Chiefs opened the scoring through Democratic Republic of Congo striker Glody Lilepo. This was the second consecutive match in which Lilepo had given Chiefs a lead here, only to end on the losing side. The same happened in their 2-1 loss to Marumo Gallants last week.

This loss, the 12th of the season, doesn’t augur well for Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi, who has to lift up his players for another blockbuster fixture against Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final in Durban on Saturday.

Amakhosi will be under pressure to avoid going 10 years without a trophy, while Pirates will be looking to win the cup for the third time in a row under Riveiro, who is leaving the club at the end of this season.

A win for Riveiro in the final will make him the only coach to win six derby matches between these sides in all competitions. The Spaniard has already made history by becoming the first Pirates coach to complete league doubles over Chiefs in two successive seasons.

He will also become the most decorated coach at Pirates if they beat Chiefs in the final, as that title will be a sixth in domestic cup competitions after also winning three MTN8 titles on the trot.

Riveiro praised the 20-year-old Mofokeng for getting the winner after combining with Deon Hotto inside Amakhosi’s penalty area.

“Rele, I think, is putting smiles on the faces of all the Buccaneers since he started playing for us. The (other) boys get inspiration from him. I think we finished the game with six youngsters on the field, which is something that speaks volumes about the club,” said the Pirates coach.

Reflecting on his last Soweto derbies, Riveiro said: “It’s something unique. It’s something difficult to explain because it’s a proper football party. Hopefully, I will have more opportunities to play in derbies wherever I have an opportunity to work, but this one is unique.”

Chiefs had a dream start in this sold-out encounter after right-back Dillan Solomons was allowed to dance past a cluster of Pirates defenders before laying the ball to Lilepo. This was Lilepo’s fourth league goal of the season and is a decent return for a player who made his Chiefs debut against Pirates here a few days after being signed in January.

Chiefs could have gone further ahead inside the first 10 minutes, but Gaston Sirino was not as sharp when he was put through by Lilepo. The Uruguayan reacted poorly before he was dispossessed inside the area.

Despite starting slowly, Pirates managed to find the equaliser through Makgopa in the 24th minute. The Pirates goal came as a result of Chiefs cheaply giving away possession. Thalente Mbatha won the ball and fed it wide on the right to Mohau Nkota, who crossed for Makgopa to beat Bruce Bvuma with a low shot inside the area.

This goal seemed to inspire the Buccaneers to go for more, and they were unlucky not to take the lead in the 31st minute after defender Tapelo Xoki saw his header off Mofokeng’s free kick parried over the bar by Bvuma.

Makgopa, too, could have punished Chiefs a few minutes later after connecting with a long pass but then rushed his shot, which went narrowly wide of the posts.

The game was very open in the first 45 minutes, and could have gone either way. Chiefs finished stronger with Nkosingiphile Ngcobo spraying some good passes to the forwards. Lilepo came close to completing his brace after touching a square pass from Bradley Cross but Pirates keeper Sipho Chaine blocked it.

The win is a huge boost for Pirates in their league campaign after they had suffered a 1-0 loss to Sekhukhune United on Wednesday to go 12 points behind log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns. While Pirates may not stop Downs from winning the league title for the eighth time in a row, their victory here boosts their chances of returning to the Caf Champions League next season.

For Chiefs, their end to this season looks bleak. They have now gone seven matches without a win in the league after losing four and drawing three. The whole situation makes it doubtful that Nabi will be given another season after signing a two-year contract in July last year.

With some of the spectators arriving late, the kick-off had to be delayed for 30 minutes. What was commendable this time around, though, was that the match didn’t look oversold as it was in the corresponding fixture. Stadium Management of South Africa confirmed that a certain number of people gained entry using fake tickets — but things looked much better with a new ticketing system in place.