Cape Town - The tough tests continue to pour in for Royal AM, with Orlando Pirates travelling to Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday evening as Thwihli Thwahla host the Soweto giants in the Premiership (7:30pm kickoff).
Royal AM had a bright start to their league campaign, recording back-to-back victories against Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United in their first two encounters.
With their confidence high, Royal AM then faced Stellenbosch FC in their most recent match, which proved to be a stern test for Dan Malesela’s charges as they suffered a 3-1 defeat at the Danie Craven Stadium.
Malesela said the loss came as an early wake-up call.
“We exposed ourselves at the back, maybe we made changes where we shouldn’t have,” Malesela said.
“Maybe we could have stayed with the same team, but you are trying to save other players and you are trying to see whether you can get forward and bring in some fresh people to have continuity, but it obviously backfired.
“We must look at the personnel to figure out if we are using the right people or not.
"It’s for us to solve. It's not for us to blame anybody and direct blame at something else, we need to fix this thing and fix it very quickly.
“Sometimes you get a wake-up call early in the season and if it does happen this early, it's good for us.”
In contrast, the Soweto giants have had a mixed bag of results in their opening three games of the season. In getting off to a good start, Pirates played fluid attacking football in their 1-0 win over Swallows FC earlier this month.
Pirates then made their way to the Western Cape and faced Stellenbosch in their second match, recording a 1-1 draw against Steve Barker’s troops.
Jose Riveiro’s team then suffered their first loss of the campaign following a 1-0 defeat to Chippa United at home, much to the delight of Chilli Boys coach Daine Klate, who celebrated passionately on the touchline.
Reflecting on their loss, Riveiro mentioned that the Sea Robbers need to do better in front of goal and cited the need to remain confident in seeing off matches.
"Just improve the finishing, maybe we need to grow a bit more confidence in the last minutes, that's the key,” Riveiro said.
"We can face the game creating clear chances and when we do that, we're always going to be close to winning.
"We have to improve what we're doing and improve in the last minutes as I said. Maybe it's a question of confidence, but it will come."
Pirates and Royal AM faced each other on two occasions in last season.
In October 2021, the clubs played out to a 1-1 draw at Orlando Stadium, with the return fixture ending in a 2-2 stalemate at Chatsworth Stadium in May this year.
IOL Sport