Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has revealed what made them afraid against Mamelodi Sundowns in the MTN8 final and opened up on another Cup final heartbreak for Nkosinathi Sibisi.
The Buccaneers, for the second successive MTN8 final, were forced to make an early change in the first stanza, as Sibisi got a concussion injury and could not continue with 11 minutes remaining of the first stanza.
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The former Golden Arrows defender was in tears as he went off the field as he also had to be substituted early in last season's MTN8 final, then against AmaZulu due to injury.
Riveiro says "it's a curious thing" for Sibisi to always get injured in Cup finals, as he recollected that he broke his nose in the Nedbank Cup final against Sekhukhune United last season.
"We played three finals, here (in last season's MTN8 final against AmaZulu) we subbed Sibisi after one minute of the game, again 20 something minutes of the game (against Sundowns)," Riveiro said in a press conference.
"If I'm not mistaken in the Nedbank (Cup) final as well, he broke his nose (but was not subbed), it's a curious thing and it happened the same last season (in the MTN8 final), we had only Paseka Mako on the bench when Sibisi got injured, only one defender (on the bench) and it was pretty much the same (against Sundowns), we had only Olisa (Ndah) to play that position," he revealed.
"Paseka could not train during the whole week, only (on Friday) he managed (to train). The good thing is we lost Sibisi but we had Olisa on the bench. You can see his level, he's ready."
Ndah made his first appearance since his own goal handed Kaizer Chiefs victory in the Soweto derby against Pirates in February this year, as he was out with a long-term injury.
Riveiro went on and said they were afraid if one more defender got injured, they would be exposed, as they had only Mako as a defender on the bench, who also was not fit enough, after he only trained on Friday.
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"Obviously, like in many positions, we had doubts during the week because it's been a long period for Olisa out of the field. We were working a lot with him, he was working a lot to be ready for this game," he continued.
"We knew that at some point probably he's going to be needed but not that early because once Olisa was on the field we were a bit afraid because we only had (Bandile) Shandu and (Deon) Hotto because Paseka (only defender left on the bench) could not be ready on time but he gave us a fantastic 30 minutes as usual," he added.
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