Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has described the loss to Richards Bay in the Carling Knockout Cup quarter-final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday as the “sh*t happen”.
Pirates were the last top-three side to bow out of the Carling Knockout Cup after Deon Hotto’s spot-kick was saved by a scholar Philasande Manqele to see Kaitano Tembo’s side win 5-4 after the game finished goalless in 120 minutes.
It is the first time none of the big three clubs, namely Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Pirates, are not in the last four of this competition.
The loss also meant that Riveiro suffered elimination from a domestic cup for the first time since he arrived in June last year, having won 12 of his previous 14 cup matches.
“It is hard to explain,” said Riveiro at the press conference.
“I haven’t checked the stats yet, but I guess the numbers are ridiculous again. But one more time 120 minutes [played] and we didn’t manage to get the victory.
“It’s difficult to explain that we should be getting heavy scorers and we are not managing to win the games. We need to insist, try to find solutions to capitalise all the chances we created.
“I don’t know how many attempts, how many shots, how much possession. But this game doesn’t have any history, I can tell you nothing special.
“It was one team on the ball, one team defending, playing long balls in order to find one transition and the other team trying without capacity to capitalise.
“We went to the penalties, sh*t happens. We missed the first penalty and today we are not the team celebrating, it is Richards Bay.
“We are playing on Tuesday [against Sekhukhune United] which is fantastic to continue with the rhythm of playing every two days.”
As Hotto saw his spot-kick saved, Thapelo Xoki, Zakhele Lepasa, Patrick Maswanganyi and Karim Kimvuidi all scored theirs but it was not enough as Richards Bay scored all theirs and, when Simphiwe Mcineka slotted the last that saw Bay go through, chairman Sifiso Biyela was smiling.
This was Pirates’ second loss on the bounce in a few days after losing to Cape Town Spurs in the DStv Premiership midweek.
Their next game is against Sekhukhune before they will face bitter rivals Kaizer Chiefs in the Soweto Derby at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
