Cardoso Hits Out At Sundowns Fans For Lack Of Appreciation
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has expressed frustration that some fans and critics fail to appreciate the club’s trademark style of play, even when they deliver entertaining football and impressive results.
Amasandawana, renowned for their “shoe-shine and piano” brand of football, have recently faced criticism from sections of the public who claim the team is “losing its identity.”
However, the Brazilians silenced their doubters by qualifying for the CAF Champions League group stages in emphatic fashion, thrashing Remo Stars with a stunning 7–1 aggregate victory, including a 2–0 win in the second leg at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Sunday.
The result saw Sundowns equal the record of Egyptian giants Al Ahly, who have lifted the prestigious continental trophy 12 times, in reaching the group stages for an 11th time.
“It seems like every time Mamelodi Sundowns plays beautiful football, people don’t want to relate with that,” said Cardoso.
“I don’t know what is happening, but it seems that it is not the intention to just make a normal evaluation of what happens on the pitch when we play. Now on Sunday was a beautiful match again, especially the first half, obviously the second one, the quality dropped, the control of the match dropped and I don’t relate so much with the second half but first half total control of the pitch with high speed ball circulation with lot of entrances on the box and we scored twice we could have scored more.
“I think we saw fantasy, we saw Mamelodi Sundowns’ style of playing on the pitch, we saw a lot of commitment from everybody, and that obviously makes me happy and makes the players excited.”
Despite winning with a big margin against Remo Stars to book their spot in the group stages, Cardoso feels that they could have scored more goals.
“Obviously, mentally, when you are winning 7-1 because in aggregate it was 7-1, it’s normal that something drops. We cannot ask the team to keep well, we can, but I don’t like but I understand.
“Obviously, the intensity drops, a very hot day, and it is normal when you introduce many players. The goals that we scored were enough for us to win. Of course, we could have scored more if we were a little bit more aggressive in the last third, putting in more numbers.
“And then especially in the last 20 minutes we could have scored more, but I totally understand that when we are winning 7-1, it is not exactly like keep on pushing and pushing because some of the players start managing the game time and their fatigue, so they don’t expose themselves to injuries or something like that.”
With the Champions League group stage secured, Mamelodi Sundowns now shift their attention to the Betway Premiership, where they will host Orlando Pirates at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.
