‘We Cannot Suffer Two Goals Every Game’: Cardoso Warns Sundowns After Fragile Start

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has expressed concern over the goals his side conceded in their opening two matches of the 2026/27 season. 
 
The Brazilians have made a perfect start to the new campaign, recording two victories. They began with a 3-2 win over Polokwane City in the MTN8 quarter-final before claiming another 3-2 victory against TS Galaxy in their Betway Premiership opener at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday. 
 
However, despite securing maximum results, Sundowns have conceded four goals across the two matches, with two goals coming in each game. 
 
“Going for your question, obviously you cannot suffer two goals; the Galaxy cannot suffer two goals because you saw last week how many times we suffered two goals, for sure not many times,” said Cardoso. 
 
“It’s quite rare that you suffer two goals. So yeah, unfortunately in the last two games, two shots, two goals. It’s not something that makes us happy. We need to correct it as a group, as a team, to have the right behaviors when we defend, when we defend high, when we defend low, when we defend set pieces. We all have to be on the level that you need to have to reduce the number of goals because you also are not going to score every time three.  

“So when you concede two goals, you have a high risk of also losing points, and obviously we cannot lose points regularly; otherwise it will be a problem. But at this moment, with two matches played and two victories, we must draw energy from that, build on the victories and the points, and stabilize some behaviors. Bring the players that need to appear. People must understand that this team had big losses, big, big losses, massive losses.” 
 
 
Cardoso, whose side visits Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Saturday, added,  “As you know, it’s not easy to substitute a player like Keano. It’s not easy to substitute a player like Jayden.  

“So players are starting; Nuno is the same. He was injured almost the whole preseason. So, players are still coming. I think it’s a good platform for us to grow, but we need to grow. It’s even better to grow with positive results, but we need to improve very quickly, very quickly, so that we can obviously stabilize behaviors, become even stronger, and stop conceding goals.”