Orlando Pirates coach slams state of Danie Craven Stadium pitch

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro hit out at the state of the Danie Craven Stadium pitch following his side's 1-0 defeat to Stellenbosch in their DStv Premiership season opener last Saturday.

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Antonio van Wyk scored the only goal of the game after 42 minutes to hand Stellies all three points and leave Pirates frustrated.

It was a disappointing start to their new campaign, but the Buccaneers have a chance to make amends when they take on Royal AM at the Orlando Stadium on Tuesday (19:30). 

Speaking after the weekend's game, a deflated Riveiro insisted his charges started well but were unable to play their normal game on a "very poor" surface.

"It (the loss) is not difficult to explain, we had a good rhythm from the start, we took the initiative on a very poor field and that means you're also taking risks," the head coach told SuperSport TV.

"In one of those situations they punished us in transition. From there we were trying to do everything in order to equalise, little by little the opponent was defending deeper.

"So that made it complicated to find a simple advantage in the last minutes, we couldn't manage to capitalise. We lost the first game of the season. We have to keep going because tomorrow is match-day two, we play Tuesday again, there's no time to waste."

Royal AM kicked off their season with a goalless draw against AmaZulu.