PSL has gotten better; it’s now harder to win – Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso believes the Premier Soccer League (PSL) has become more competitive than ever, suggesting that no single team will dominate the title race this season.

The defending champions currently sit top of the table with 25 points from 12 matches. While they have advanced to the CAF Champions League group stage, the club missed out on the MTN8 and Carling Knockout competitions.

Cardoso, however, has come under pressure following a run of inconsistent results that saw Sundowns drop 11 points. Orlando Pirates trail them by just three points with two games in hand, while Kaizer Chiefs remain close behind on 22 points with one game in hand.

“Look of course I’m not happy with the points we have at the moment, but that is something that comes from the beginning of the season, unfortunately – we lost points in matches we should have won,” Cardoso said.

He explained that the team’s early struggles were partly due to a disrupted start to the season.

“By the fact that we went on the FIFA Club World Cup without enough time to prepare as we should – let’s get over that… of course I am not happy, nobody is happy inside Sundowns – that doesn’t mean we don’t understand why it’s happening.”

Cardoso added that the team is focused on regaining consistency.

“What we’re working on strongly, after putting things on the proper path, is to accumulate the most number of points possible, but we knew from the very beginning the league will be tough – I spoke about it.”

The Portuguese coach highlighted that the league’s growing competitiveness stems from improvements across several clubs, with fourth-placed Sekhukhune United now only four points behind.

“The competition has gotten better, it’s gotten hard, it started from last season, but what we want is to shape our character in a way, that we’re so strong, and have such attitude that nobody can destroy or break our attitude, nobody,” he stressed.

“So that’s our job, to become strong, not think about the other clubs, respect the others, being as best as possible and see where things go. I was listening to the coach of PSG after losing to Bayern, he said let’s see how things are in March, April. That’s what we need to do and until then we need to accumulate points because we lost where we should not have lost at the beginning of the season. Let’s see what happens ahead, what I predict it will be a very competitive league until the end.”