Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has explained the why the club decided to have their pre-season camp in Spain.
The Buccaneers spent two weeks Spain, where they were using state-of-the-art facilities to prepare themselves for the 2023/24 campaign.
The Sea Robbers finished their pre-season tour undefeated after beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0, before collecting a 3-1 win over South American side Independiente Del Valle a few days later. The last friendly was against newly-promoted LaLiga side UD Las Palmas and it ended goalless.
Some had suggested that the Buccaneers went to Spain due to Riveiro being a Spaniard himself, but he dismissed those claims, saying they picked their destination based on the training facilities.
“We didn’t choose a country, we did chose the training facilities. First of all, a place that we knew very well that we can get what we need. A professional football environment to satisfy our needs as a football club,” Riveiro told the media.
“We played against only one Spanish football team, UD Las Palmas. A team that you can recognise them because of the special technical level of the players.
“Then we have opportunity to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv, such a physical team, an extremely strong and physical team.
“I hope that you are not concerned anymore about the lack of competition against physical teams and then Independiente del Valle, a mixture of tactical team because it is well coached, technical players coming from South America and physical players competing in Copa Libertadores in a very competitive squad.
“I think we got almost everything that we will face during the season and [I’m] happy to see the team competing well against all of them and I will say also pushing a bit far from their limit, from what are used to.
“You cannot compete against those teams if you’re still in your comfort zone and I think they managed to represent South African football very well.”
