Photo Credit - Orlando Pirates Football Club.
Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro admitted his side could have won the Betway Premiership fixture against Stellenbosch had they played 11 against 11 on Tuesday,
Pirates’ league title aspirations suffered a blow when they were held to a 0-0 draw by 10-man Stellies at Athlone Stadium. The home team was forced to play for more than an hour with 10-men following a straight red card to defender Brian Onyango in the 35th minute.
The game looked balanced until Onyango, who had just been recalled to Kenya’s national team Harambee Stars squad for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches against Gambia and Gabon by new coach Benni McCarthy, was given his marching orders after bringing down Tshegofatso Mabasa just outside the box.
According to Riveiro, Pirates could have done much better with 11 versus 11 men on the pitch because the red card forced the Stellies to resort to a defensive game, which denied his side the space to play and thus proved difficult to break them down.
“Both teams trying to win the match. The moment the opponent is playing with ten, there is intention to win anymore so there is less spaces to play,” Riveiro told reporters after the game as quoted by Soccer Laduma.
“We try but I'm not sure we create enough motions in the box tonight. It's true that we were in control, we have a few chances to win the match but we didn't finalise so many chances today. It was so difficult, but whatever I say is going to sound like an excuse but to play here and be precise cannot be in the same sentence.”
Riveiro continued: “We take it. It's one point, obviously not the result we were looking for. We want to win every game but we need to understand there is an opponent that's in front working hard trying to protect the result and they did a good job.”
With Mamelodi Sundowns winning their fixture 2-0 against AmaZulu, Pirates remained 18 points behind the Brazilians, though they have played four matches less.
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