New Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has explained why he made two changes at half-time and how the red card affected his side in their 1-0 win at AmaZulu.
Masandawana needed a late goal by Iqraam Rayners to collect the three points with 10 men after Ronwen Williams got sent off.
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Cardoso made two half-time subs, replacing Sphelele Mkhulise and Kobamelo Kodisangwith Bathusi Aubaas and Kutlwano Letlhaku, respectively, admitting he wanted to give the team new impetus.
“We had our moments, especially in the last part of the first half. It would be normal if were winning, but we were not,” he stated.
“So we needed to change a little bit our attitude, push a little bit higher. That’s why we changed at half-time two players.
“We could even change different players, but the idea was indeed to give a sign to the team that there was a clear need to intensify the game so that we could arrive with more time in the decisive moments in the third part of the pitch.
“We were better in the second half, well-positioned, the opponent changed a little bit of their structure, a line with one more man, trying to close the attacks from our full-backs, who we pushed higher on the pitch.
“We had again a couple of situations where we didn’t score. Then we had an unfortunate moment that happens in football, nothing to say about it.
“After that we had to reorganise our game. It was important to fight and I had to speak to my players, thanks to an injury of an AmaZulu player I was able to call my boys to speak a little bit with them and to give them the right emotions to face the last part of the game.
“We reorganised ourselves, we waited for the right moment, we attracted AmaZulu a little bit with our build-up.
“With the entrance of Peter, with the entrance of Kutlwano and Thapelo they were ablt to give us little extra energy to find that moment to score.
“I just need to praise the boys to have this capacity to go against the moment of adversity but also at the same time we should I repeat to take the responsibility of the game with much higher intensity from the beginning so that don’t we need to arrive in the last minute like this because not always we’re gonna win like this.”
