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Player taking a corner kick
Spanish mentor, Jose Riveiro is happy that local football fans voted for him for a second consecutive year to lead the Carling All Star team, this time against Carling knockout champions, Magesi F.C.
The Orlando Pirates coach was also on the bench of last year’s Carling All Star team against last season’s champions, Stellenbosch F.C. He says the match will give players on the fringes a chance to showcase their talent and stake a place in the first teams of their clubs, as was the case last year.
Five Pirates players including fan favourite, Relebohile Mofokeng, four from Kaizer Chiefs and three from Mamelodi Sundowns will be in the starting line up on Saturday against Magesi.
While the likes of Patrick Maswanganyi and Thembinkosi Lorch are also part of the All-Star team, it comprises mostly of exciting young players from the so-called big three.
Magesi will be out to prove that beating Downs to win the title was no fluke.
Riveiro says he’s delighted that the fans have once again shown faith in him.
“I am grateful like I said before to be here and to do my job as good as I can working for Orlando Pirates, I try to gain the respect of each and everyone around. So, I’m happy to be selected one more time and we will try to do the best we can to win.”
Last year’s Carling All-star team included the likes of Chiefs’ Mfundo Vilakazi and Mduduzi Shabalala who are now regulars in the Amakhosi first team.
Riveiro, who has shown himself to be good at working with youngsters at Pirates, says this year’s match is an opportunity for such youngsters to showcase their talent.
“We have a good experience one year ago where players like Jabu and Vilakazi and the others had an opportunity to showcase. So, Saturday is going to be an opportunity for others am sure after the match there will be players, we will hear of more that we didn’t know a lot about.”
The All-Star team will be captained by Pirates’ Sipho Chaine.
Saturday’s match will be played at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto and will kick off at 3:30pm.
