“It’s A Pattern”: Cardoso Vows To End Sundowns’ 18-Year MTN8 Curse

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has admitted that the club’s poor MTN8 record is a troubling pattern they must break when they face Golden Arrows in Sunday’s semifinal first leg at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

Sundowns have won the competition only once in the 18 years since it was renamed the MTN8 in 2008. Their only success came in 2021, when they beat Cape Town City in the final under the guidance of co-coaches Manqoba Mngqithi and Rulani Mokwena.

Last season, the Brazilians were knocked out in the semifinals by Orlando Pirates, who went on to lift the trophy for the seventh time and for a fourth consecutive season.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s clash, Cardoso admitted that Sundowns’ record in the competition was not good enough, although he pointed out that the club had won other trophies during the same period.

“It’s obviously not a good thing that in 18 years, as you said, we have won the trophy once in the MTN8,” he said.

“But it’s also understandable that there are other trophies that are in our dreams that we won during that period of time.

“So it’s just a matter of coincidence, I think. But it’s a very interesting thing, very, very interesting to understand. And let me just add, in the beginning of the competition, when we played Polokwane, it was our first match.

“It was my exact question to the players: when there’s a pattern, when there’s a pattern, and when we have won one out of 18, obviously there’s a pattern that is not good, but there’s a pattern.

“We should understand ourselves if there’s anything, something that we do, that takes us in the direction of the pattern, and what we have to do differently so that we can try to break the pattern.

“And that was exactly the starting point for the competition that we settled between ourselves, and it will be for sure something I will remind the boys again during the preparation for the next match.”

While Sundowns will be determined to change their MTN8 fortunes, Cardoso knows they face a difficult Golden Arrows side that handed them their first league defeat of last season.

“I think that, as much as it’s about qualification, obviously we understand that it’s always difficult to play against Golden Arrows,” he added.

“Last year, it was one of our toughest matches and one of our most painful defeats in the Betway Premiership. It was a special day with a lot of rain.

“But when you understand that, first, Golden Arrows is a team that has quality, you have to try to do your best when you have more control over the context of the game.

“So obviously we would like to, and we will try our best to achieve a positive result. A positive result is always a victory without conceding goals, and that’s obviously the care that we need to have.

“But also, we are not a team that usually has the capacity to wait for what the game is going to give us, so we need to go for it, take responsibility for the game, like when you are playing a normal game.

“And obviously, as always, try to control the capacity that Golden Arrows has in terms of aggression from counterattacks, as we saw, for example, in the previous qualifying round when they played Kaizer Chiefs, where from a medium-to-low block they had no issues being aggressive when they had the chances to press and win the ball.

“So that’s something you need to control, obviously, as best as possible, but take the responsibility of going for a result that allows us to have more comfort in the second match.”

The Portuguese coach and his players will now look to take the first step towards breaking that unwanted MTN8 pattern when they host Arrows on Sunday, before the return leg of the two-legged semifinal.