Cardoso Offers Praise For Khoza
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso was highly impressed with defender Malibongwe Khoza’s performance, having been away from international duty.
Despite being away for the CHAN tournament with the national team, Khoza stepped in for the injured first-choice center-back, Grant Kekana, and delivered a strong showing against Kaizer Chiefs on Wednesday.
Cardoso emphasized that his decision to play Khoza was a matter of trust, which is a core principle in the Sundowns locker room.
“Malibongwe Khoza, he just arrived from the national team, he played very well in another position, and we have no problems putting him to play, he played very well,” said Cardoso.
“And this is exactly what we do, is trust. How many times have I spoken about trust inside our locker room? If the player comes, we have no problem because we trust them and they just have to give answers. Because when we trust and they give answers, they are closer to repeating and to play.
“I’m very happy with the performance that he had, I confessed to you that despite the injury from Grant [Kekana], despite also Mosa [Lebusa] being conditioned, he was on the bench, but he had to take painkillers so that if we need him, he would play. Already, he had that in the previous match, but he gave his best when he entered.
“We knew what kind of speed players we would have to play against from Kaizer Chiefs, and you look at the striker they put, look, when they substituted, they put probably the quickest player in the PSL to play in the front.
“So we knew what kind of center backs we needed for this game, and that also that management of people, that management of human beings, that management of players, that we need to do and try to do in the best rationality that we can to produce results,” Cardoso added.
“And when results are not what the fans want, what we want we don’t stay happy, but we respect our work very much because we seriously work every day, and just people should have respect for the people who work seriously every day.”
The defending champions currently sit in fourth place with eight points from four games. They will aim to climb the Betway Premiership table when they face Stellenbosch FC at Athlone Stadium on Saturday.
