Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has emphasised collective success ahead of any individual recognition as a cornerstone of the Buccaneers' MTN8 triumph over AmaZulu.
Less than four months after being appointed at the Orlando Pirates helm, Riveiro guided the club to their first piece of silverware in more than two years after recording a narrow 1-0 win over AmaZulu in Saturday's MTN8 final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Monnapule Saleng netted a sensational free-kick to decide the encounter for Pirares who faced a number of challenges, including the absence of captain Innocent Maela through injury.
The Buccaneers were also forced to adapt to the early enforced changes of Thabiso Monyane and Nkosinathi Sibisi during the match.
"I'm not the person to say what we do right or great," Riveiro said post-match.
"We do a lot of things to have cohesion in our team. When I don't talk about the players as individuals it's not only for one reason, but one of the reasons is because we really believe in the collective.
PICS | Orlando Pirates celebrate famous MTN8 triumph
"We did two substitutions after 85 minutes, Kabelo (Dlamini) and Bienvenu (Eva Nga) and they gave you the best five minutes that they could give you. It doesn't matter (that they only got five minutes), they are not upset, they are not thinking, 'Why didn't you play me before?' They are just trying to contribute.
"Pule, he did everything in order to be prepared for this game. He wanted to be here and was doing super good rehab over the last month at least in order to be here. They just want to be part of it.
"It's going to be one of the keys in football in the future like in other sports, that players accept the roles, accept playing 20 minutes and do it, because they can make the difference in 20 minutes. You can be the MVP in 20 minutes. You can come on, make the difference and contribute, and not just be angry.
"It's changing in football in general, and little by little these are the types of things that we need to educate the players to be part of the collective as much as possible and understand that everyone is relevant and that everyone can contribute. We try to be an example of that.
"It's easy - it's difficult because you need to water it every day, you need to feed it every day and every morning, it's not easy to keep the team in that mood, and it's difficult because we're all individuals and want to be the protagonist - but the key is the collective.
"Whatever we do, whatever we're going to share at the end of the season, like this trophy, is going to be because of the collective."
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