Cardoso names Pyramids final first leg as toughest Sundowns match

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has identified the 1-1 home draw with Pyramids FC in the first leg of the 2025 CAF Champions League final as the most difficult match of his time in charge.

Cardoso guided Sundowns to the final during his first season at the club, reaching the showpiece match for a second successive year in the competition.

The South African side appeared on course to take an advantage into the second leg, but conceded late to draw in a closely fought contest at home. Pyramids FC then won the return match in Egypt 2-1, securing a 3-2 aggregate victory and claiming the trophy for the first time.

Cardoso said he understood why his players dropped deeper to try to protect their lead, but felt the late equaliser had a wider impact on the tie than simply changing the scoreline.

“The home match with Pyramids 100%, because as much as I see that game, and I think the goal from Pyramids is a sequence of mistakes, I think that it was painful because that goal changed a lot the dynamic of a final,” Cardoso said on Mamelodi Sundowns TV.

“And I understood also that it would be very difficult to eventually overcome it. We could, but it would be difficult to overcome that emotional moment when you suffer the goal in the last minutes. You know I’m the kind of coach that thinks that defending matches is not putting defenders; is putting people in the front, is threatening the opponent.

“But I also think that protecting results is having the ball, and that’s something that nowadays we are doing better. I think we are doing better, but still, we are always on that. Even this match, I think we could have stayed more times with the ball up until the end. So, we go back on that, and that Pyramids match, I felt that the players wanted to defend low, wanted to protect the result.”

The Portuguese coach added that his approach was to respond to the demands of each match while ensuring Sundowns remained true to their own strengths.

“As I said, I always try to give the right answers to the questions the game puts. But I also like to take the game to the side where I also sometimes can say sorry, but I don’t want to give those answers, I just want to give these ones because this is us. This is what we can control, and we are better on that.”

Cardoso also said Sundowns are rarely required to defend for long periods in a structured shape such as a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1, with their defensive work more commonly involving transitions.

“If we don’t have the ball, we defend like this, if we defend like that, because compactness and defending well also allows you to make good transitions. Defending well makes you attack better. Attacking better makes you defend better. And the game is a whole. There’s no attack, defence, the phases of the game they are completely engaged ones on the others.”