Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says he believes in the quality of Neo Maema and is excited after he captain South African past Egypt in the African Nations Championship first round qualifiers.
Maema, and Sundowns teammate Terrence Mashego played crucial roles in their 4-2 aggregate win over the North African giants to set up a tie against Malawi in the second round of qualifiers for the CHAN tournament.
Both have been on the periphery of the first eleven under Cardoso in recent weeks but he expects the excitement and energy garnered from their national team exploits to return to the training ground at Chloorkop to give him an even bigger selection head coach for the upcoming games.
“I understand your question and even thankful for it, obviously I didn’t see the second game, but saw the first one – I saw the highlights, 18 minute video on Youtube of the big picture of the match, read some public comments,” Cardoso said.
“I spoke by message, wishing them good luck and congratulating them, for the first game and at the end, not only Neo but also Terrence [Mashego]. What I have to say about these players is that it’s very important that when they have opportunities at Sundowns, grab it with both hands because there are many players.
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“Sometimes when you miss an opportunity, once or twice, then there’s another player who takes it, then it’s quite difficult to get back on rhythm. That’s what happened with Neo, he’s a player with quality, we believe, I believe in him so much!
“Sometimes you need to wait the right moment so that you can then pick up [the rhythm], I just wanna remind you that when I arrived, first match, Neo played first XI, when we played Raja Casablanca, the first match, it’s a player we trust [in this squad].”
Cardoso admits Maema has not been too pleased by his lack of game-time, with the 29-year-old not featuring in their last 13 league outings as the signing of Jayden Adams in January pushed him further down the pecking order in the three-man midfield system.
“It’s a player with whom I have been speaking a lot [to], because I know he’s a player that has quality and in the last period of time, he has not been playing so much and that obviously doesn’t make him happy,” he added.
“But I’m so happy he had these performances with the national team, for him it’s so positive because then we profit from that energy that he brings, that excitement, that reinforcement of attitude, of ego.
“It’s a matter of quality on Neo, he has a lot of quality, it’s a matter of expressing it on a regular basis so the coach has to put him in with no doubts.”
Sundowns next fixture is a top of the table clash with Orlando Pirates on Sunday afternoon at the FNB Stadium (15h30).
