Cardoso Reveals Half-time Team Talk In Maniema Win

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has revealed his half-time team talk that inspired his players to stage a magnificent comeback in their 2-1 win over AS Maniema Union in the CAF Champions League on Saturday.

The Brazilians were on the brink of suffering a shock defeat after trailing the Congolese outfit for large parts of the match. Second-half substitute Peter Shalulile leveled matters in the 82nd minute before Exaucia Moanda put the ball in the back of his net in stoppage time to turn around the tie.

Masandawana received a major boost in their quest for a spot in the quarterfinals as the win saw them increase their points tally to eight after five matches played. On the other hand, Maniema have been dumped out of the competition as a result of the loss.

Now, the 52-year-old Portuguese mentor has detailed how last season’s semi-finalists were able to mastermind their hosts’ downfall and walk away with the maximum points under extremely hot weather conditions in Kinshasa.

“I always believe in the players, I always believed that it was possible to turn the match around, but I told them at half-time to just play for one goal, we don’t need to play for two just play for one because I knew one goal could give us the emotions to keep believing in the second one,” said Cardoso.

“And I told them to believe in that first goal until the end because one goal completely makes the match different. However, a result for a draw would be something that could lead us to the next game [under pressure] depending on us.

“But I also knew that indeed one goal could change [the game] a little bit and increase the level of space and the opponent and give us extra energy. We risked a lot it’s true, we could have been penalized because of that, I remember the save that Ronwen [Williams] did.” 

Despite snatching the points at the death, Cardoso admits that Maniema, who secured their group stage berth at the expense of Angolan powerhouse Petro de Lunda, are a tough team to play against but believes that the half-time score was not a true reflection of his team’s performance.

“I think we were highly penalized by the result on the scoreboard at half-time, it’s very difficult to play here and it’s evident by the results Maniema usually gets. It’s a team that doesn’t concede many goals,” the former Esperance tactician added.

“It’s a team that you can have possession against, but they always find a way to be aggressive because of their straight and direct football. And sometimes it’s very difficult to cope with that but we knew that we have to play our style and bit by bit we could create our moments.

“It was important that we keep our emotions [aside] and try to increase the level of intensity inside the pitch in terms of our players in the front that could create chances. We broke them with our way of playing because we were not playing well enough in the first half.”

The Tshwane giants will lock horns with table-toppers AS FAR in the last match in Group B next week Sunday. While a draw would be enough for Cardoso’s troops to secure passage to the last eight, they will undoubtedly be keen on winning the clash and ultimately the group.