Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has tipped his charges to go toe-to-toe with global giants at the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup in the US.
The Brazilians get their campaign underway against Korean outfit Ulsan Hyundai on Wednesday, 18 June.
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Cardoso had a fairly successful 2024/25 campaign leading his charges to an unprecedented eighth successive Betway Premiership title as well as reaching the CAF Champions League final and the Nedbank Cup semis.
Speaking to www.fifa.com, the Portuguese mentor has challenged his team not to be fazed by their opponents but instead provide a stern test for the teams they will come up against.
“We believe we can challenge ourselves and create challenges for our opponents. That’s what will be the most important thing. We want to compete,” he said.
“We understand the reality, but we are willing to do our best in every challenge that we’ll face. It’s also a test to see what level we are at.
“We know that in Africa, we are one of the biggest teams, but we also want to understand at what level we can be, compared to different teams around the world.
“It’s obviously a team that is used, here in South Africa, to impose. That would be quite challenging.
“For example, with Borussia Dortmund, it’s a high tempo, high rhythm team that comes from German football, which is very intense, very quick, very aggressive, and we’ll have to deal with that, and we’ll need the right mentality to understand that when playing against those teams, in some moments we’ll not have the ball.
“I believe that not conceding puts us closer to winning trophies. Despite that, my approach is not defensive. It is just pragmatic regarding what is obviously necessary to do to be at the highest level.
“African football is about joy. It’s on the pitch; it’s off the pitch. People should not think that our game is unorganised. Because there’s this idea that African teams are not organised, particularly in defence. That is definitely not true.”
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