Miguel Cardoso has shot down the suggestion that Mamelodi Sundowns could have played their final Betway Premiership fixture against TS Galaxy in the window between the two legs of their CAF Champions League final against AS FAR, calling the idea flatly impossible given the travel demands of a two-legged continental final stretching from Tshwane to Rabat.
The question arose in the context of Sundowns’ punishing end-of-season schedule, with the club’s last league game against Galaxy eventually moved to Tuesday, May 12 – five days before the first leg of the final at Loftus Versfeld.
But when it was put to Cardoso whether the fixture could instead have been slotted in between the two final legs, his response was unequivocal.
“No, that would be absolutely impossible,” he said. “With the travel to North Africa, how would you make it? We could do it if we had two teams or one [squad] playing here and the other travelling – it’s impossible [for us].”
The logic is straightforward enough. With the first leg at Loftus Versfeld on May 17 and the return leg in Rabat on May 24, the window in between is consumed almost entirely by recovery and transcontinental travel.
Cardoso illustrated just how thin those margins are by recounting the travel difficulties his squad experienced during the semi-final against Espérance.
“Of course, it was the possibility we were given — even for you to understand when we came from Espérance, we could not fly in the night. There was no slot to fly in the night, we had to fly in the morning. But we were told if we flew in the night, we’d have to play after two days – just for you to understand how we’re dealing with reality here.”
He was careful to defer to Sundowns’ senior management when it came to the finer details of the scheduling discussions with the PSL, insisting he was not best placed to speak to those negotiations. “The best is if you speak to Mr Bra Stan, Mr Yogesh or Mr Flemming. They can explain the details that happen with the PSL — I’m not the best person.”
What he was willing to speak to at length, however, was the physical cost of the schedule his squad has had to absorb regardless of how the fixtures were ultimately arranged. Cardoso, who began his coaching career as a fitness coach, said he had flagged the injury risks of this run-in well in advance.
“Sometimes… there’s a moment. I was very objective with my club, telling them on this sequence of matches we would lose a lot of players. I said that many times, and to several people. If there’s something I know, it’s the physiology of players.
“I was a fitness coach at the beginning of my career. I’m a very experienced coach in managing these things and I have maybe like 80 matches in South Africa, so I know the reality and I know my players. Some of them have history [of injuries] — we work together, as all departments, to manage the players. We know what can happen when we have a player who plays more or less. There’s a pattern that we can, throughout the years, recognise in the players, so we can also build a profile of a player and manage them in the best way.”
Rotation, he added, is not a simple solution. Changing personnel in must-win matches comes with its own complications when the replacements available do not offer the same tactical profile as the players they are replacing.
“I could change [the line-up] more… I could change more. But then I have to deal with adaptation — putting in players in must-win games that are not as strong as others, because change is one thing, but profiles are not the same. It is what it is.”
Despite everything, Cardoso’s message was one of quiet resolve rather than complaint. His club, he said, has the structures and the collective intelligence to navigate what remains.
“In moments you can have margins for change, in others you have to go with [what you have]. The players and the club are doing well in managing these moments — let’s try to continue to do it so we can make the end of the season the way we want.”
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