Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso wouldn’t be drawn into specifically commenting on the title race or clubs that are giving Sundowns competition for league honours.
The Brazilians defeated Richards Bay 2-0 in the Betway Premiership on Saturday in Umlazi to open a six-point gap at the top of the table. This was Cardoso’s fourth match in charge and fourth victory on the trot in all competitions. The Portuguese mentor was asked what he made of the race title and said competition is tough and his charges need to stay focused for when things intensify.
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“Tough competition very exciting in terms of management from my part, competition is there,” said Cardoso.
“We have to focus on us in the right moments because certainly the deciding moments will arrive and on those moments, we have to give a positive answer. For sure we’ll be ready for it.”
The coach also gave his analysis of the level league saying it’s more intense and physically demanding than where he worked previously.
“The league is obviously a tough league played by athletic players in general,” added Cardoso.
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“So, the physical demand of the matches is very high. We have data that if I compare to previous places where I was the volume of high intensity distances that the players do in the game is incredible. That’s the major difference. But it’s important to have capacity to give an answer to that because those actions are the ones that make a difference in a game especially if you can sustain them in the parts of the game where the other team is more tired. And to cope with the style of play like we saw today like we saw in the last two that we played.
“It’s the same style so we have a lot of runs back so it’s quite difficult to have the team like I usually say, travelling together on the pitch, so that we go up together we come down together because sometimes we are going up and the ball is already coming here. So, we have to come back, and this separates the team a little bit, I don’t like to see this. I like the team to be connected and to be organised. So sometimes we need to organise ourselves at the back then we can go together in the front.”
