Head coach Jose Riveiro has come to the defence of his squad and slammed an 'unusual schedule' as Orlando Pirates were held to a 1-1 draw by Royal AM ahead of Saturday's Soweto derby.
The Buccaneers played to a nearly empty Orlando Stadium on an unfamiliar Wednesday afternoon, just three days after beating TS Galaxy in Mbombela.
Riveiro made seven changes to the squad that defeated the 2-1 on Sunday, including handing a long-awaited debut to 17-year-old DStv Diski Challenge (DDC) starlet Ratomo, whose shot at goal deflected off Pelembe to open the scoring.
Despite dominating the encounter, the Buccaneers failed to capitalise on their 15 attempts at goal with only four hitting the target and were eventually punished when former Pirates star Menzi Masuku's header beat Pirates' Sipho Chaine from Royal AM's only second corner of the game in added time.
"I'm very happy with the performance of the guys, even though the result is not good," Riveiro said post-match.
"I think they did everything, understanding the difficulties of the matter when you change seven players in the starting 11, like I said before, it is difficult to perform during the 90 minutes.
"We played just 70 hours before the kick-off, we had a very intense game against TS Galaxy, and we knew that at some point today we are going to feel it, the fatigue. It's an unusual schedule and I think it was an unusual game."
READ | 'If the player is ready, he is ready' - Riveiro on red-hot Ratomo
Asked about the periodisation of the team, with reference to the schedule, Riveiro alluded that his players had not enough time to recover in between matches.
"There's no periodisation when you don't have enough time to rest," added Riveiro.
"The physiological studies say you need a minimum of three days in between games, we didn't get that but it's not my business, I don't decide when we play or where we play.
"We just try to do our best to guarantee that we can compete in every game. We cannot guarantee that we are going to win every game. We did it today and we are going to do it again in 70 hours or even less and that is where our mind is just now.
"We are going to be disappointed for a couple of hours with the [Royal AM] results but after that, we have to think about the recovery protocols and all the things we can do to compete with an opponent [Kaizer Chiefs] who is going to get two or three more days than us to rest.
"We have to be smart and make sure that we can use every strategy to make sure that we can balance that disadvantage."
Pirates turn their attention to the Nedbank Cup where they take on Amakhosi in the semi-final of the competition. The clash will be played at FNB Stadium on Saturday with kick-off set for 15:00.
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