Sipho Chaine says the belief that head coach Jose Riveiro instilled in him over the past two seasons has had a direct impact on his performances.
The 27-year-old shot-stopper joined the Buccaneers from Chippa United in 2022 and has gone on to play 50 matches, keeping 18 clean sheets.
In his time with the club, Pirates have won the MTN8 twice alongside two Nedbank Cup wins, with Chaine especially instrumental in this season’s MTN8 final where he saved three penalties for a 3-1 penalty shootout win over Mamelodi Sundowns.
Chaine also kept out a Lucas Ribeiro spot-kick in the 2023/24 Nedbank Cup final as the Bucs went on to win 2-1 against the Brazilians.
Reflecting on his time at Bucs under Riveiro, the Bucs keeper had nothing but praise for his manager.
He said in the Citizen: “You need someone that believes in you in every sphere of life. You just need someone to believe in your abilities and for me it happened to be coach Jose when he came in.
“I’ve never changed the way I am. I’ve always been the same Sipho that everybody knows, and I try as much as I can to improve myself to get better every day in every training session and in games.
“Football is a very difficult sport and you might face a hundred situations, all of them different and I always try to work and better myself to be the best player that I can be.”
The player added that he is in an environment where players work hard to perform at their best.
“I think from a team perspective, Orlando Pirates is required to be the best that it can be in each and every game or cup final that we play,” he explained.
“I’m glad we could push each other to strive and be the best that we can be. I think every moment is important. It can be a penalty save or it can be the easiest save.
“As a goalkeeper that’s one position you need to focus for 95 minutes of the game, and it can be in extra time or penalties. I try to be as focused as I can in each and every situation I encounter in every game and on the day, it turned out to be the penalty (save) and I’m glad I could help the team.”