Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has bemoaned his side's lack of freshness after a 4-0 humiliation by Mamelodi Sundowns in the Carling Black Label Cup final.
Pirates reached the Carling Black Label Cup final after edging Kaizer Chiefs on penalties in the second semi-final and were thrashed 4-0 by Sundowns. However, the Sea Robbers played a big part of the final with ten men after Tapelo Xoki got red-carded early in the match for a lunging tackle on Haashim Domingo.
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Riveiro says in the final, his players lacked freshness after also playing in the MTN8 final a week prior and also suggested that some players could not be used or risked for different reasons, compared to Sundowns who fielded a much fresher line-up after seeing off AmaZulu in the first semi-final.
"Like I said, it's a particular tournament, you have to... You can use the rules in the way that you want, we can do a lot of substitutions, we have 25 players in the game list," Riveiro told journalists in a press conference after the game.
"The players are not, how can I say, electronic devices that you can, you know, plug in, they charge the battery, they are ready to play, all of them they have different issues.
"The fact that you have players on the bench doesn't mean they are ready to play, for different circumstances I'm not going to open for you," he said.
"So we have to deal with the circumstances with the resources that we have and like I said, I'm extremely proud of the way the guys behaved this week, the whole week from the final.
"How we managed to compete today (Saturday), we played a beautiful derby, we got the right to be in the final but it was too much for us, it was extra and ja we just have to move on," he added.
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Pirates' team was also depleted by injuries to key players in their back-line, with captain Innocent Maela, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Olisa Ndah and Thabiso Monyane all ruled out of the tournament.
The Sea Robbers also had a short period of rest compared to Sundowns, who were not in action last weekend and played in the morning against Usuthu while the Buccaneers had only roughly three hours of rest in between the derby and the final.
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