Cardoso: “Something Is Missing”
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso admitted that domestic cup success remains the missing piece of his time at the club, saying he wants to add a South African cup trophy to his CV as the Brazilians face an uphill battle to reach the MTN8 final.
The Portuguese coach made the admission following Sundowns’ disappointing 1-0 defeat to Golden Arrows in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday.
Cardoso has yet to win a domestic cup since taking over at Sundowns in December 2024 following the departure of then-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi.
During his first season at the club, Cardoso guided the Brazilians to the Betway Premiership title but struggled in the Nedbank Cup.
Last season, the Portuguese mentor also failed to win any of the four domestic competitions, as Sundowns missed out on the Betway Premiership, MTN8, Carling Knockout and Nedbank Cup. However, Cardoso did manage to lead the club to CAF Champions League glory and is now hoping to improve his domestic cup record, despite the Brazilians making a poor start to their MTN8 semi-final campaign.
Cardoso admitted that winning domestic cups is one of the few things missing from his time at the club.
“Regarding cup finals, obviously, it’s something that I also told the boys today [on Sunday]: something is missing for us. It’s not really finals, but victories in domestic cups,” he said.
“It’s not like I heard the other day that someone said that we have won nothing here. We won one championship.
“That season, we were not able to win any cup, and last year we also didn’t win any cup in South Africa.
“So obviously, in the first season, we just played one of them because, when we arrived, the other two had already been played by the club. It’s a minus, obviously.
“I want to put a cup on my CV in South Africa, and we still can. But to win this one, we need to have the spirit of the Champions League.”
The 1-0 defeat to Arrows was a painful one for Cardoso, but he hopes the disappointment will also be felt by his players and transformed into positive energy ahead of the second leg.
“I just hope that the pain I feel today is felt by the players because, if the pain I feel is felt by the players, there will be a lot of energy next weekend,” he added.
“Today is a very, very difficult day for me, I confess. And this pain must be transformed into energy, positive energy.
“Because there are still 90 minutes to play, plus a few minutes. And we are able to score against this team. Yeah, we need to win. We are able to win, and we have to.
“But the character we’re going to show in the pursuit of that objective will come, of course, from the energy we can take from today’s loss. Let’s hope the boys understand the message.
“But for now, we need to concentrate a lot on how we’re going to approach the AmaZulu match because it’s also a very tough one. A very tough one.”
The Brazilians will first turn their attention to the Betway Premiership when they face AmaZulu at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday before travelling to Durban to take on Golden Arrows in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-final on Sunday.
