Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has urged his players to respond to their CAF Champions League elimination with purpose, insisting the season still holds plenty of silverware to chase.
Sundowns’ continental campaign is over, and Cardoso wasted no time pointing his squad toward the competitions that remain. He admitted the exit hurts, but he framed it as a moment to regroup rather than retreat.
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The Brazilians have little time to dwell on the disappointment. A Carling Knockout Cup tie against Marumo Gallants this coming week followed by Durban City and the USM Alger in the CAF Super Cup.
“For the rest of the season it means focusing even more on the competitions we need to play,” Cardoso said. “There’s a lot of trophies to play for.”
The coach did not downplay what the elimination means for a club that has made continental football its signature stage. Sundowns had been expected to reach the group stage for a 12th consecutive time, and they have reached the final three years in a row.
“Obviously we can’t forget what it means to be out of the CAF Champions League, it’s hard for the club, hard for the coaches,” he said. “It’s very hard for the club who was supposed to be 12 times in a row in the group stage.”
Rising from the ashes
Cardoso turned to history to explain how he wants the setback to be viewed. “Great empires also come from ashes,” he said. “It was like after the First World War, many big countries grew up, after the Second World War, the same.”
He described the exit as “a dark night,” but one he believes can fuel the team. “It has to give us the energy and purpose to move forward and build more,” he said. “Maybe an important lesson to move ahead.”
The standard for the dressing room
Cardoso closed with a message about character, one he says he repeats often to his players. “We are not what happens to us. We are much more what we do when things happen to us,” he said. “That is the standard we need to take in the locker room and focus.”