Golden Arrows head coach Steve Komphela has opened up on his discussion with Jose Riveiro after the 7-1 defeat to Orlando Pirates.
Komphela and the Spaniard were seen exchanging pleasantries before a warm embrace after the thrashing at Orlando Stadium on Saturday evening which he shed some light on.
“No you exchange ideas man, you talk about the game, but what I always tell players, after a victory, let’s say Arrows win, when a match comes to an end, you may feel excited and on top of the world but you must understand your counterpart of the other side is reeling,” Komphela said.
“So your level of excitement has to be so measured that you do not offend the guy who just lost a match, so you need to be at a high level of maturity and awareness that you control your excitement and emotions.
“It’s not easy to control emotions, they just surpass any other logic, but the beauty of the conversation with Jose was more rational, dignified, and with lots of respect. He came on and he reminded me about the match we played here when I was with Moroka Swallows.
“We had a small chat about that and he mentioned the difficulty they experienced and also said we should carry on doing the job, as you can see what we’re trying to do, it’s a project that has a long way to go.
“To me he came across as someone who understands yes, Pirates were victorious, Pirates won, but the other team lost and in all honesty, I normally throw myself in different zones, moments like those when people come to sympathise, I’m out of that.
“I don’t need any sympathies and all that, I’m mature enough to go beyond the pain I’m going through, instead you have a responsibility to manage the pain of the rest of the people you’re leading but I appreciate the talk and the chat. ‘
The coach, who has been known to entertain and at times, inspire in press conferences went on to lay out a blueprint to his methods; suggesting that there’s several matches in football that’s beyond the 90 minutes.
Perhaps suggesting that he needs to inspire confidence in his squad before and after matches, especially in a morale-damaging defeat which he also felt was not a fair reflection of what transpired on the pitch.
“But the first thing I understood was my job was to then create some thought of thinking for Phumlani Msibi, post-match,” he continued.
“I need to have a way of responding without being emotional, also talking to Mandla [Ncikazi], Musa Bilankulu, Mabhuti Khenyeza, coaches do not only prepare for a match, but they also prepare for this after the match.
“You may win 90 minutes as a coach, but lose the match in the press conference, [then] you have lost, so you need to be careful to win the match before the match, pre-match, play the match, and go win post-match because that’s another match.
“There are many of my colleagues who would play a match win a match and lose a match in the press conference, you become disastrous, so you have to be so smart, aware and mature that excitement doesn’t mislead your thoughts that you end up saying the wrong things and depression as well.
“A result must not make you start saying things, and people say what happened? Has he smoked something or what? You still have to be logical and make sense but I found that he [Riveiro] made a perfect submission in the discussion we had. I spoke to all the guys, nice guys and I’d do the same if we had to beat Pirates with seven.”