Cardoso urges Sundowns to learn from costly mistakes against Golden Arrows

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says his players must learn to manage difficult moments more effectively after lapses in concentration contributed to their 1-0 defeat by Golden Arrows in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final on Sunday.

Sundowns began brightly in Durban, but the match lost momentum after Golden Arrows goalkeeper Edward Maova was forced off and replaced by Thakasani Mbanjwa. Cardoso felt his side failed to maintain its focus during the disruption and paid the price before half-time.

The African champions now face a demanding second leg next week. They must win by at least two clear goals against Abafana Besthende to overturn the deficit and keep their hopes of reaching the MTN8 final alive.

“I think we had a good start, first 20 minutes until the substitution of the goalkeeper from Golden Arrows, it took a little bit of the rhythm of the game. We were ok seven minutes to make a substitution and then we fell asleep, we fell asleep until halftime,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV.

“Completely asleep and out of a mistake similar to the one we did in the match against Chiefs where we see we lose the ball and out of position for the rest-defence and we still make a mistake by dropping a player in the front and we suffered a goal.

“And it’s time to learn how to deal with these situations obviously, otherwise you cannot continue to dominate the game and suffer from a simple action. Two times they were able to counter-attack.

“And two times they were able to enter the box to take danger and the story of the game is creating opportunities one after the other and the goalkeeper very well that did very well.

“They weren’t able to oppose to our target; we also didn’t manage to get a lot of shots on target as we could because they defended very well and halftime of the match let’s second half when we go to Arrows what would have,” he added.

Cardoso said Sundowns had controlled much of the contest and created a succession of opportunities, but Golden Arrows defended resolutely and their goalkeeper made important saves. The visitors, however, were unable to turn their possession and attacking pressure into enough efforts on target.

The decisive moment came after Sundowns lost the ball and failed to recover their defensive shape. Cardoso compared the error to a similar mistake in the team’s match against Chiefs, highlighting the danger of allowing opponents to counter-attack after an attacking move breaks down.

Despite the setback, Sundowns are not yet concentrating solely on the MTN8 return fixture. Their immediate priority is a midweek Betway Premiership match against AmaZulu, which will take place before the second leg against Golden Arrows.

“First of all, we have to think about the match with AmaZulu and then we going to see. It’s important to understand that this team is resting for one week, he played three days ago, we’re going to play again, they’re going to rest again to play against us so it’s what it is let’s see how we arrive there and then think about. Now we need to think about AmaZulu,” Cardoso stated.

Sundowns will therefore have to balance their league commitments with the need to recover from the first-leg defeat. Golden Arrows, who will have a one-goal advantage when the teams meet again, will also have time to rest before facing Sundowns in the decisive semi-final fixture.