Cardoso Wants Sundowns To Show Fighting Spirit From the Start
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso praised his team’s fighting spirit after their 1-1 Betway Premiership draw against Kaizer Chiefs but said they need to show the same determination from the start of matches instead of waiting until the final minutes.
Sundowns dropped points against Amakhosi at FNB Stadium on Saturday, leaving them with four points from their opening three league matches and seventh in the standings.
The 2025 CAF Champions League winners have made a slow start to the 2026/27 season and will be looking to improve their results in the coming matches.
“Look, I think for the people who saw the match, obviously it’s clear that we had the intention from the first minute to win this match,” Cardoso said.
“The game started, and we saw the team move forward. We came here with the intention to win the match and to put ourselves in a position to collect more points in the league as the matches go by.
“It’s very early to speak about that. That’s a long way in front of us. Match by match is the right approach to have in this league, where matches are so tricky, as we saw in the last one, which we had to fight for until the last minute. Today, we did the same.”
However, Cardoso believes Sundowns need to show the same character from the opening whistle rather than relying on late comebacks.
“What I think is important is that we show character to fight for results until the last minute, but we should also show character to fight for results from the first minute,” he said.
“I don’t like to win matches at the end. I prefer to win them in the beginning because that’s when teams can obviously manage the context, coaches can manage players, and coaches can even try tactical approaches, make changes and give opportunities to others.
“So that’s what’s important. But I think today it was also important not to lose the match.
“Obviously, I think both teams didn’t want to lose today. I think we went a little bit stronger towards the intention to win. But I also think it was because we showed that capacity on the pitch, and obviously, Kaizer Chiefs understood that from a mistake and a transition, a goal could arrive, and it did.
“Sometimes teams win games like that.
“So, I think we saw a match that was played with real intensity on the pitch, and I really appreciated it. That is also important for South Africa in terms of showing the quality that exists and that sometimes we don’t see.
“But the quality was clear on the pitch.”
