Carling All Star captain Itumeleng Khune heaped praise on the quality of head coach Jose Riveiro after securing the Carling Cup title with a win over Stellenbosch FC.
The All Stars went in as underdogs, with five DStv Diski Challenge players in their starting line-up against the strongest team available to Steve Barker’s Carling Knockout champions.
But early goals from Mfundo Vilakazi and Ashley du Preez’, who ironically both come from Kaizer Chiefs, along with Khune, made sure Mervin Boji’s goal was nothing more than a late consolation for the Cape Winelands outfit.
Riveiro, who’s been dubbed somewhat of a cup king since his arrival, winning three of the four domestic cups available so far beat Rulani Mokwena by a couple of hundred votes to lead the All-Star team.
“I think the results and the performance today gives you answers of how he is as a coach and since he’s been in the country, he’s been here for two seasons and won three cups already for his cup,” Khune said when asked by iDiski Times about his impression on Riveiro.
“It gives you the sense he’s a great coach, the fact that his club went all the way to [Europe] to get him, they believe in him, the same as the fans here at home, they voted for him amongst the 16 other coaches, so it shows the quality as a coach, how dedicated he is to the game and his winning mentality.
“He assembled a team for two days, he managed to prepare us. People wrote us off, I mean, you would have given Stellenbosch a win before the game started but the fact that we got two early goals, shows we responded very well as players and the coach, the rest of the staff deserves credit.”
Riveiro now adds a fourth trophy to his CV since his arrival in South Africa, after two MTN8 titles and the Nedbank Cup with Orlando Pirates.
