Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has made an admission on his awareness of not losing to Orlando Pirates in open play before the MTN8 final showdown at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Sundowns defeated Pirates 2-0 in Cardoso’s first ever domestic cup final to end the Buccaneers’ dominance in the competition. Since his arrival at Chloorkop in December 2024, the Portuguese mentor has only lost once to Pirates in seven games.
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The Wafa Wafa title has brought his trophy tally to four so far. The coach said though he was aware of the stats, he didn’t want to ride the wave before the game because his charges still needed to compete in the final and he is proud that they knew exactly when to up their game.
“Yeah, obviously we need to know everything that we did before, the past steps where we stand,” said Cardoso.
“I knew that before this match, obviously, I didn’t speak about it, and I don’t think it will condition what comes ahead. What is important to understand is obviously when you walk through matches and you can state yourself in a platform like this one obviously, it fits by the quality of the work that is done on the club, from the management to the coaching staff, to all the staff around us, and to the players, especially my players were very, very determined today.
“I told them that we had to take the match as much as we could to the place where we want to play it, because playing it in another platform that doesn’t characterize us makes it more difficult for us.
“And I think in the future, if we want to have better results or keep having victories, we need to play even more and better. But we knew that we have to compete. You cannot only be romantic to play the game and not be able to compete in the highest level.
“And I think this team of Mamelodi Sundowns is a team that understands when it needs to compete, and to be in the highest level of the game internationally and in the country, you need to compete very well.
“So, there are values, there’s organization, there’s determination, there’s commitment, there’s physicality that is behind. But then always think about how you want to play, the way we want to play, as much as we are loyal to ourselves.”