Mamelodi Sundowns ‘fell asleep’ in Golden Arrows defeat, says Miguel Cardoso

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said his side “fell asleep” during their 1-0 defeat by Golden Arrows in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final.

Sede Junior Dion scored the only goal of the match in the 38th minute at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday, giving Abafana Bes’thende a narrow advantage before the second leg next week.

Sundowns began positively, but Cardoso believes his team lost concentration after Golden Arrows were forced to substitute their goalkeeper. The Portuguese coach said the disruption affected the rhythm of the match and that his players failed to respond properly.

“I think we have a good start first 20 minutes until the substitution of the goalkeeper from Golden Arrows,” he said on SuperSport TV.

“That took us little bit out of the rhythm of the game. We were okay seven minutes to make a substitution and then we fall asleep.

“We fell asleep until halftime, completely asleep.”

Cardoso was particularly frustrated that Sundowns conceded after making what he considered a similar error to one seen in their match against Kaizer Chiefs. He said the team lost possession, failed to maintain its defensive positioning and then made another mistake in dealing with an opponent in front of them.

“And out of the mistakes, similar to the one we did in the match against [Kaizer] Chiefs where we see we lose the ball, we’re not positioned for the defence and we still make a mistake by jumping a player in the front we suffer a goal,” he said.

The result leaves Sundowns needing to overturn a one-goal deficit in the return fixture if they are to reach the next stage of the competition. Cardoso stressed that his players must improve their response to moments when the game changes, warning that dominance cannot be sustained if simple mistakes continue to lead to goals.

“It’s time to learn how to deal with these situations, otherwise you cannot continue to dominate the game and suffer from a simple action.”

Although Golden Arrows take the advantage into the second leg, Cardoso’s comments made clear that he viewed the first-leg defeat as avoidable rather than decisive. The tie remains open, but Sundowns must find a way to prevent lapses in concentration from undermining their control of matches.

The loss came despite what Cardoso described as a good opening 20 minutes for Masandawana. However, the early promise was followed by a period in which he felt his side lost its focus, allowing Golden Arrows to take the lead before half-time.

The second leg will now determine which team progresses from the MTN8 semi-final.